Clinical manifestations of cat-scratch disease

  The clinical manifestations of cat-scratch disease are diverse, often with a history of being scratched by or in close contact with cats. The main systemic manifestations include low-grade fever, headache, chills, general malaise, malaise, anorexia, nausea or vomiting. Because cat-scratch disease is a self-limiting disease, most patients do not require treatment. Only a few patients have extra-lymph node metastases, causing systemic lesions, occasionally thrombocytopenic purpura, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, encephalitis, meningitis or cerebral arteritis, which are more common in AIDS or other immunocompromised patients.  The symptoms of cat-scratch disease are mainly manifested in the following areas: 1. Primary lesions: 3 to 10 days after being scratched or bitten by a cat, one to several local erythematous papules, pain is not significant; a few papules turn into blisters or thick blisters, occasionally can be penetrated to form small ulcers. After 1~3 weeks, the lesions are healed by transient hyperpigmentation or crusting. The lesions are mostly found on the hands, forearms, feet, calves, face and eyes, etc., and may be ignored because of mild symptoms.  2. Local lymph node enlargement: 1~2 weeks (5~60 days) after scratch infection, the lymph nodes in the drainage area of more than 90% of the cases show enlargement, common in the head and neck, axilla, groin and other places. The lymph nodes are initially firm, mildly painful to the touch, and vary in diameter from 1 to 8 cm. 25% of patients have septic lymph nodes, which may occasionally penetrate to form sinuses or fistulas. The enlarged lymph nodes usually resolve on their own within 2 to 4 months, but in a few cases they last 6 to 24 months. Enlarged lymph nodes are also seen in the adjacent or even generalized lymph nodes.  Systemic symptoms: most of them are mild, 32%-60% have fever (>38.3 degrees), fatigue (29%); gastrointestinal reactions such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain with weight loss (14%); headache, splenomegaly, sore throat and conjunctivitis account for 13, 12, 9 and 5% respectively. Conjunctivitis with swollen lymph nodes in front of the ear is one of the important features of cat-scratch disease, which helps in the diagnosis.  4, uncommon clinical manifestations and complications: rare clinical manifestations and complications are encephalopathy (2%), chronic severe organ damage (liver granuloma, osteomyelitis, etc., 2%), arthropathy (arthralgia, arthritis, etc., <1%), erythema nodosum (<1%), etc. Other cases include transient maculopapular rash, erythema multiforme, thrombocytopenic purpura, parotid enlargement, multiple hemangiomas and visceral purpura (mostly seen in HIV-infected patients), all of which are occasional.  5, ocular manifestations: ocular lesions of cat-scratch disease are less commonly seen, mainly manifested by optic nerve retinitis, conjunctivitis or retinal vascular inflammation, etc. The main symptoms are transient black shadows in front of the eyes or loss of central vision, and a few patients do not have visual impairment.