Botulism disguised as parotitis

• Autor(a) principal: Caldas, João Paulo
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Filipe, Rita, Queirós, Rita, Grilo Novais, António, Almeida, Francisco, Malheiro, Luís, Teixeira Lopes, Teresa, Saraiva, Margarida, Tavares, Margarida, Sarmento, António
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/7261
• topic: Botulism; Neurotoxin; Parotitis; Segurança Alimentar

Botulism is an acute toxin-mediated neuroparalytic syndrome caused by some Clostridium species. It typically presents itself as an acute symmetric descending paralysis of cranial and peripheral nerves, which can potentially evolve to respiratory failure and death. We report a case of botulism diagnosed in a patient presenting with a parotitis probably due to xerostomia, even though he had already sought medical assistance for blurred vision and dysphagia. The neurological symptoms resolved without administration of antitoxin and botulism diagnosis was confirmed with identification of both toxins B and F in patient's serum. We aim to illustrate the need for a high clinical suspicion for the diagnosis of botulism and to report an atypical case of botulism with the production of toxins B and F, the latter being of rare occurrence.