Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Premedical Science, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Acta Trop. 2021 Mar;215:105786. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2020.105786. Epub 2020 Dec 9.
Scrub typhus is an acute febrile illness caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi and is endemic to many parts of the Asia-Pacific region. We investigated whether the genotype of O. tsutsugamushi or the DNA load would be a useful marker of disease severity in scrub typhus patients. We evaluated the clinical features, genotypes and bacterial DNA load in the blood of 118 patients, including 114 surviving and 4 non-surviving patients, admitted at Chosun University Hospital. Four patients infected with the Pajoo, Yonchon, Youngworl and Boryong genotypes died. In the 114 survivors, 100 Boryong and 2 Taguchi genotypes were identified. The genotypes involved showed significant differences between the surviving and non-surviving patients (p<0.001). The median number of O. tsutsugamushi DNA copies was 78 copies /μL (range 3,960) in surviving patients, whereas 83,800 copies/μL (range 244,600) in the non-surviving patients. We found that the genotype and DNA load in the patient's blood are useful markers of disease severity in scrub typhus.
恙虫病是一种由恙虫东方体引起的急性发热性疾病，流行于亚太地区的许多地方。我们研究了恙虫东方体的基因型或 DNA 负荷是否可以作为恙虫病患者疾病严重程度的有用标志物。我们评估了在朝鲜大学医院就诊的 118 例患者（包括 114 例存活和 4 例非存活患者）的临床特征、基因型和血液中的细菌 DNA 负荷。4 例感染 Pajoo、Yonchon、Youngworl 和 Boryong 基因型的患者死亡。在 114 例存活患者中，鉴定出 100 例 Boryong 和 2 例 Taguchi 基因型。存活和非存活患者之间的基因型存在显著差异（p<0.001）。在存活患者中，恙虫东方体 DNA 拷贝的中位数为 78 拷贝/μL（范围 3960），而非存活患者为 83800 拷贝/μL（范围 244600）。我们发现患者血液中的基因型和 DNA 负荷是恙虫病严重程度的有用标志物。
