Bartonella henselae neuroretinitis in a 15-year-old girl with chronic myelogenous leukemia

A 15-year-old girl being treated with imatinib for chronic myelogeous leukemia (CML) presented with acute vision loss in her right ye accompanied by swelling of the right side of her neck. On examination, she was found to have disk and macular edema of the right eye. Fine-needle aspiration and excisional biopsies of an enlarged submandibular lymph node were negative for malignancy. Although initial serologies were equivocal for Bartonella henselae, repeat serologies performed 1 week later upon the appearance of a macular star were positive. This is the first reported case of B. henselae in a patient with CML.