Lymphogranuloma Venereum: a Croatian Case Report of a Patient with Proctitis and Concurrent Cervical Lymphadenitis

BACKGROUND: Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) can present with genital ulcers, proctitis, or femoral/inguinal lymphadenopathy with or without constitutional symptoms. There have been reports on the infection characterized by supraclavicular or cervical lymphadenopathy, although there is no published data on the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) in the affected lymph node. METHODS: We report a patient with pharyngitis, proctitis and cervical lymphadenitis, in whom LGV specific DNA was detected by polimerase chain reaction (PCR) in both the rectal swab and cervical lymph node fine needle aspirate. RESULTS: A 48-year-old Croatian HIV-positive male patient attended our outpatient HIV clinic complaining of a 10-day perianal pain, bloody rectal discharge with normal stool consistency and painful and enlarged cervical lymph node. On the first day he had fever, which subsided on the following day. Clinical examination demonstrated exudate on the right tonsil, painful, and enlarged right cervical lymph node (5 × 2 cm, Figure 1), perianal pain on palpation and rectal purulent discharge. During the preceding 10-year period, the patient was taking his antiretroviral therapy regularly and had an undetectable HIV RNA by PCR. We started treatment with ceftriaxone and doxycycline. The fine needle aspirate of the affected lymph node showed a pyogranulomatous inflammation. Indirect immunofluorescence assay on CT antibodies detected positive titers in IgG (>512) and IgA (256) classes. LGV-specific DNA was detected in both the rectal swab and the cervical lymph node fine needle aspirate. Ceftriaxone was discontinued after 5 days and doxycycline therapy was continued for a total of 6 weeks because of the persistence of the cervical lymphadenopathy. The patient came to a full recovery. CONCLUSION: We found six published case reports on LGV with associated cervical lymphadenopathy in which the infection with CT was established by serologic testing and/or by nucleic acid amplification tests of the pharyngeal and/or rectal swabs. Some of the mentioned reports demonstrated granulomatous inflammation present in the affected cervical lymph node, as was evidenced in our patient. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of a patient with CT infection in whom LGV-specific DNA was detected in the cervical lymph node. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.