AUTHOR=Zhang Xiaomin , Feng Peng , Meng Pengfei , Li Dongfang , Gao Huizhong , Zhao Yang , Yuan Jingjing , Wang Yongqing , Xia Han 

TITLE=Case Report: Severe Listeria Encephalitis With Complicated or Secondary Autoimmune Encephalitis and CNS Demyelinating Diseases

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.848868

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.848868

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p><italic>Listeria monocytogenes</italic> is an important food-borne bacterium. It rarely infects patients with complete immunity and causes meningocephalitis. Patients with severe <italic>Listeria</italic> encephalitis always experience a bad prognosis.</p></sec><sec><title>Case Presentation</title><p>A 39-year-old male patient was admitted to our hospital due to fever for more than 10 days and disturbance of consciousness accompanied by convulsions for 2 days. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) results showed <italic>L. monocytogenes</italic> in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood, indicating <italic>L. monocytogenes</italic> encephalitis. Autoimmune encephalitis and central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating autoantibodies in the CSF also showed positive results. The case was finally diagnosed as severe <italic>Listeria</italic> encephalitis with complicated or secondary autoimmune encephalitis and CNS demyelinating diseases.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>It is necessary to carry out infection and immunity screening in patients with severe encephalitis, especially for immunocompromised patients. mNGS plays a pivotal role in screening patients with severe and difficult neurological diseases.</p></sec>