Pulmonary and psoas muscle nocardiosis in a patient with lupus nephritis: A case report and review of the literature

The incidence of nocardiosis is increasing with the expansion of immunosuppressive therapy and improvement of laboratory diagnostic methods. Nocardiosis could be fatal in the compromised host. Some Nocardia species are known to be multi-drug resistant. Thus, early recognition and identification of Nocardia species are important for patient treatment and outcome. Recently, we treated a patient with pulmonary and psoas muscle nocardiosis in a woman taking prednisolone for lupus nephritis; the isolated organism was Nocardia farcinica identified by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism testing.