Bilateral Intraocular Nocardia asteroides Infection

Abstract

A 38-year-old man with hypogammaglobulinemia and pulmonary Nocardia asteroides infection developed an intraocular Nocardia infection. The diagnosis was confirmed by examination of a specimen removed at pars plana vitrectomy. The chorioretinal infection in one eye resolved partially, with no organisms visible on histopathologic examination of the globe at autopsy. One month before the patient's death from disseminated nocardial infection, the previously uninvolved right eye developed a new metastatic nocardial chorioretinal lesion. This lesion rapidly progressed in size until the patient's death and showed on postmortem examination the presence of organisms characteristic of N asteroides.