CASE REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. General Cardiovascular Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1465047
This article is part of the Research TopicCase Reports in General Cardiovascular Medicine: 2024View all 16 articles
Purulent Pericarditis Caused by Nocardia: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Yulin Red Cross Hospital, Yulin, Shaanxi Province, China
- 2Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Yulin Red Cross Hospital, Yulin, Shaanxi Province, China
- 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yulin Red Cross Hospital, Yulin, Shaanxi Province, China
- 4Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
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Purulent pericarditis caused by Nocardia, a rare opportunistic infection associated with a high mortality, is frequently misdiagnosed as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) or other bacterial infections. We report a case of Nocardia-induced purulent pericarditis in a patient with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The patient experienced multiple misdiagnoses and received inappropriate anti-tuberculosis therapy. Timely pericardial puncture and subsequent culture of the pericardial effusion identified Nocardia, prompting initiation of appropriate antibiotic therapy which led to clinical cure. This case report underscores the importance of broad differential diagnostic considerations in purulent pericarditis and emphasizes that prompt initiation of Nocardia-directed antibiotic therapy, guided by microbiological identification, is crucial for timely diagnosis and management. Additionally, we review and summarize previously reported cases of laboratory-confirmed Nocardia pericarditis in AIDS patients.
Keywords: Nocardia, Pericarditis, Antibiotic therapy, Pericardiocentesis, aids
Received: 18 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhong, Lin, Cao, Jiang, Ruan, Li, Zhong, He and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhiyi He, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, 530023, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
Jian Luo, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Yulin Red Cross Hospital, Yulin, 719006, Shaanxi Province, China
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