SUMMARY: Actinomyces infection (
actinomycosis) may create diagnostic conflicts and be confused with malignant neoplasms, especially in the abdomen.
Subacute infection with extensive necrosis and fibrosis that crosses anatomic barriers is characteristic of
actinomycosis. (3-5) Fusobacterium nucleatum, an obligate anaerobic filamentous Gram-negative rod, is known to cause abscesses and venous thrombosis but has not been reported to cause extensive fibrosis mimicking
actinomycosis.
In contrast to
actinomycosis, pulmonary nocardiosis preferentially affects immunosuppressed patients.
Actinomycosis in obstructive tonsillar hypertrophy and recurrent tonsillitis.
Apical
actinomycosis as a continuum of intraradicular and extraradicular infection: case report and critical review on its involvement with treatment failure.
Differential diagnosis of lingual abscess includes neoplasm, arteriovenous malformation, cystic lesion, haemorrhage, infarction, pseudoaneurysm of lingual artery, ischaemia from giant cell arteritis, angioedema,
actinomycosis infection, and acute epiglottitis [2-4, 9, 10, 13, 16, 19, 25, 26], while abscess at the BOT should be differentiated from lingual tonsillar abscess, intralingual thyroglossal duct cyst, and lingual thyroid cyst [6, 7, 26].
Initially, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) was used to treat decompression sickness in divers; however, over the years its far-reaching potential was recognized, and it has been approved for a variety of purposes including wound repair, carbon monoxide poisoning, anemia, thermal burns, delayed radiation injuries, osteomyelitis, and
actinomycosis (for review see [11]).
Read, "Nocardiosis and
actinomycosis," Medicine, vol.
Tumors or conditions rated as intermediate include inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMT) [297-300], a solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) [301], desmoid fibromatoses [302, 303], a hemangiopericytoma [304], and a Castleman's disease [305], while benign tumors and conditions include dermoid cysts [301, 306], teratomas [307, 308], leiomyomas [309, 310], (fibrous) hamartomas [311, 312], a hemangioma [313], a fibroadenoma [314], malakoplakia [315], abscesses [316-318], a xanthogranulomatous urachitis [319], a urachal tuberculosis [320],
actinomycosis [321-323], an endometriosis [324], a perforated colonic diverticulitis [325], and even a fishbone within an urachal cyst [326].
Dupieux et al., "
Actinomycosis: etiology, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and management," Infection and drug resistance, vol.
Clinically, due to healing difficulty, differential diagnoses of PMC are squamous cell carcinoma, traumatic ulcer, lymphoma, oral tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, Wegener's granulomatosis, leishmaniasis,
actinomycosis, and primary syphilis [1, 3-7].
Primary abdominopelvic
actinomycosis typically mimics an intra-abdominal malignancy due to its potential to form an infiltrative mass, whereas postoperative
actinomycosis presents more often as an abscess.
On this basis the diagnosis of Mycetoma/
Actinomycosis was made.
Actinomycosis in the oral region is usually seen following surgery or odontogenic infection.
Other diseases presenting as discharging sinuses in children are
actinomycosis, botryomycosis, nocardiosis, and sporotrichosis.