The resulting ischemia (restriction in blood supply) and oxygen shortage, if left untreated for a sufficient period of time, can cause damage or kill heart muscle tissue (myocardium). Brain: Cerebral infarction is the ischemic kind of stroke due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It can be atherothrombotic or embolic. Stroke caused by cerebral infarction should be distinguished from two other kinds of stroke: cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Cerebral infarctions vary in their severity with one third of the cases resulting in death. In response to ischemia, the brain degenerates by the process of liquefactive necrosis. Lung: Pulmonary infarction or lung infarction
Spleen: Splenic infarction occurs when the splenic artery or one of its branches are occluded, for example by a blood clot. Although it can occur asymptomatically, the typical symptom is severe pain in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen, sometimes radiating to the left shoulder. Fever and chills develop in some cases. It has to be differentiated from other causes of acute abdomen. Limb: Limb infarction is an infarction of an arm or leg. Causes include arterial embolisms and skeletal muscle infarction as a rare complication of long standing, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus. A major presentation is painful thigh or leg swelling. Bone: Infarction of bone results in avascular necrosis. Without blood, the bone tissue dies and the bone collapses. If avascular necrosis involves the bones of a joint, it often leads to destruction of the joint articular surfaces (see osteochondritis dissecans).
Signs and symptoms
Pulmonary infection

Produces a virulent form of pneumonia (progressive)
Night sweats, fever, cough, chest pain
Pulmonary nocardiosis is subacute in onset and refractory to treatment with standard antibiotics
Symptoms are more severe in immunocompromised individuals
Radiologic studies show multiple pulmonary infiltrates, with a tendency to central necrosisNeurological infection

Headache, lethargy, confusion, seizures, sudden onset of neurological deficit
CT scan shows cerebral abscess
Nocardial meningitis is difficult to diagnoseCardiac conditions

Nocardia has been highly linked to endocarditis as a main manifestation
In recorded cases, it has caused damage to heart valves whether natural or prostheticLymphocutaneous disease

Nocardial cellulitis is akin to erysipelas but is less acute
Nodular lymphangeitis mimics sporotrichosis with multiple nodules alongside a lymphatic pathway
Chronic subcutaneous infection is a rare complication and osteitis may ensue
May be misidentified and treated as a staph infection, specifically superficial skin infections
Cultures must incubate more than 48 hours to guarantee an accurate testOcular disease

Very rarely, nocardiae cause keratitis
Generally there is a history of ocular traumaDisseminated nocardiosis

Dissemination occurs through the spreading enzymes possessed by the bacteria
Disseminated infection can occur in very immunocompromised patients
It generally involves both lungs and brain
Fever, moderate or very high can be seen
Multiple cavitating pulmonary infiltrates develop
Cerebral abscesses arise later
Cutaneous lesions are very rarely seen
If untreated, the prognosis is poor for this form of disease

Causes
Normally found in soil, these organisms cause occasional sporadic disease in humans and animals throughout the world. Another well publicized find is that of Nocardia as part of the oral microflora. Nocardia spp.