RESEARCH ARTICLE
Appearance of Klebsiella Pneumoniae Liver Abscess Syndrome in Argentina: Case Report and Review of Molecular Mechanisms of Pathogenesis
Andrea Vila 1, *, Andrea Cassata 1, Hugo Pagella 1, Claudio Amadio 2, Kuo-Ming Yeh 3, Feng-Yee Chang 3, L. Kristopher Siu 4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 107
Last Page: 113
Publisher ID: TOMICROJ-5-107
DOI: 10.2174/1874285801105010107
Article History:
Received Date: 29/7/2011Revision Received Date: 25/8/2011
Acceptance Date: 31/8/2011
Electronic publication date: 27/9/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess syndrome (KLAS) is an emerging invasive infection caused by highly virulent community-acquired strains of K. pneumoniae displaying hypermucoviscosity. The salient features of this syndrome include the presence of bacteremia, primary monomicrobial liver abscess, and metastatic complications. A previously healthy Argentinean man presented with fever and found to have liver abscess caused by K. pneumoniae with metastatic seeding of gastric wall. Cultures from blood and liver abscess grew hypermucoviscous K1 K. pneumoniae with sequence type (ST) 23 by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), positive for rmpA (regulator of mucoid phenotype A), wzyKpK1 (capsular polymerase) and aerobactin genes. The hypermucoviscous phenotype of this K. pneumoniae isolate was readily identified by the "string test" (colonies formed a long string when touched with a loop). The patient responded favourably to percutaneous drainage of the abscess and antibiotics. This is the first documented report of KLAS described in Argentina, and may signal the emergence of this syndrome in South America.