Progress in Medical Sciences. 3021;
5(1):(43-164)
An Atypical Presentation of Legionnaire’s Disease
Zohra R. Malik* and Zareen Razaq
Abstract
The multisystem involvement in Legionnaires' disease commonly includes the pulmonary,
gastrointestinal tract, renal and neurological manifestations, but the mechanism of disease
has not been defined except for the pulmonary system. Circulating toxins are the most
likely culprit. We describe a nonfatal case of Legionnaires' disease that had seizures at
presentation. The patient was a chronic alcoholic and a very remote history of seizures, the
last seizure being 20 years ago. So at the time of presentation, we had to determine whether
the seizure was due to withdrawal from substance abuse, was a regular tonic-clonic seizure
that the patient was diagnosed with many years ago, or was it a manifestation of infection.
An immunologic mechanism is mostly responsible for the extrapulmonary manifestations
of Legionnaires' disease.