In this episode, Cassandra Calabrese, DO, dual-boarded in infectious disease and rheumatology, walks us through when to suspect Bartonella (it’s not always a house cat!), how to diagnose and how to treat.

• Intro :01
• Welcome to another exciting episode of Rheuminations :11
• About today’s episode :17
• 10th Annual Basic and Clinical Immunology for Busy Clinicians starts 2/26 2:18
• A look at upcoming episodes 3:00
• Check out Healio’s Rheum + Boards – new questions coming soon! 3:15
• The interview with Dr. Cassandra Calabrese 4:08
• Is there always a cat exposure? 5:19
• Are there other animals to look out for? Or other scenarios? 6:15
• Endocarditis and Bartonella – consider these when things aren’t adding up 7:20
• What about Bartonella quintana, do you always treat it? 9:43
• It seems Bartonella can be more subtle than other infectious endocarditis, is that true? 10:49
• When suspicious, how do we test for Bartonella? 11:57
• Titer is important 13:57
• How do you treat this? 14:43
• What are long-term outcomes like? 16:38
• Thank you, Dr. Calabrese 17:35
• Warthan-Starry stain 17:54
• Thanks for listening 21:24

Cassandra Calabrese, DO, is associate staff in the department of rheumatic and immunologic disease and the department of infectious disease at Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum

Disclosures: Brown and Calabrese report no relevant financial disclosures.

References:

Wright JR. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2021;145:1297-1306.