Lymphogranuloma venereum -: A rare cause of genital ulcers in Central Europe

Lymphogranuloma inguinale, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis serovar L1-L3 is rare in patients from western countries but needs yet to be considered in the differential diagnosis of genital ulcers. We report a case of a young male patient without any eventful travel history who presented with a genital ulcer at the sulcus coronarius and painfully enlarged lymph nodes in the right inguinal area. The typical clinical picture and serum IgM and IgG antibody titers of 1: 16 and 1: 512, respectively, against C. trachomatis were suggestive of infection with C. trachomatis serovar L1-L3. The diagnosis was confirmed by isolation of the organisms from the ulcer ground and subsequent sequence analysis of the omp1 gene which led to identification of C. trachomatis genotype L2 with 99% homology to a reference strain of C. trachomatis serovar L2. The lesion healed rapidly under treatment with doxycycline for 3 weeks, and the lymph nodes did not ulcerate. Thus, clinical suspicion was confirmed by genotyping of the isolated strain allowing timely diagnosis and treatment of lymphogranuloma inguinale. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel.