Significance of Selective Vasculitis and the Bone-Marrow Syndrome in Pseudomonas Septicemia

Abstract

INFECTION of the respiratory tract of children with fibrocystic disease by Pseudomonas aeruginosa apparently rarely leads to septicemia.¹ However, the transformation of this organism from a harmless inhabitant of the intestinal tract to a dangerous systemic invader is not uncommon in children with leukemia.² Selective vasculitis, a lesion highly characteristic of pseudomonas septicemia, is frequently recognized in patients with leukemia who have been treated with steroids or antimetabolites or both, but this has not been observed in children with fibrocystic disease and pseudomonas infection of the respiratory tract. An evaluation of the etiologic factors predisposing to initial infection with Ps. . . .