Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, a rare human pathogen, was repeatedly isolated from the blood of a 20-year-old male patient with patent ductus arteriosus who developed subacute bacterial endocarditis. Difficulties in isolating and identifying the organism are discussed. The bacterial isolate was found to be susceptible to various antimicrobial agents.
Actinobacillus/isolation & purification* ; Adult ; Blood/microbiology* ; Case Report ; Endocarditis, Subacute Bacterial/microbiology* ; Human ; Male ; Septicemia/microbiology

Shigella bacteremia occurs so rarely that blood culture is useless for the laboratory diagnosis of dysentery. S flexneri type 2 was isolated from a blood culture of a 3-year-old boy with clinical diagnosis of dysentery. A stool culture was negative for not only shigella but also other pathogenic bacteria. This was the only shigella-positive blood culture during the last 12 1/2 years although more than 1,200 cases of bacteriologically proven dysentery were encountered. One of the 4 bottles inoculated with 2 blood samples drawn on the 4th day of illness yielded numerous shigella and few Klebsiella pneumoniae colonies on subculture. On admission the patient was a moderately nourished boy with body temperature of 38 degrees C. The leukocyte count was 10,200/microliter with 29% neutrophils. No evidence of septicemia was noted. He was placed on antibiotics and fluid replacement. The patient was discharged in 6 days after full recovery.
Child, Preschool ; Dysentery, Bacillary/microbiology* ; Human ; Male ; Septicemia/microbiology* ; Shigella flexneri/isolation & purification*

Nonpathogenic Neisseria, normal inhabitants of the human nasopharynx, are known to cause occasional infections including such severe ones as septicemia, meningitis and endocarditis. Recently two strains of so called nonpathogenic. Neisseria, identified as N. subflava, were isolated from blood specimens of two different patients. One patient had meningitis, septicemia and subacute bacterial endocarditis while the other had septicemia. Pigment production by both of the strains was not definite and only a light yellow color was observed after prolonged incubation. However, the isolates showed bacteriological characteristics of N. subflava, namely gramnegative diplococci which were oxidase positive, acid production from fructose, glucose, maltose and sucrose but not from lactose or mannitol; and iodine reacting polysaccharide production from sucrose. One of the patients revealed serum agglutinin titers up to 1 : 640 against the isolate.
Adult ; Case Report ; Endocarditis, Subacute Bacterial/microbiology* ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Meningitis/microbiology* ; Middle Age ; Neisseria/isolation & purification* ; Septicemia/microbiology*

Vibrio vulnificus was isolated from a blood culture of a 41-year-old male patient with liver cirrhosis. He had eaten raw fish one day prior to the onset of clinical symptoms which included fever, chills, diarrhea and hypotension. He also developed cellulitis of the right leg which developed into a necrotic ulcer. The isolate was a slightly curved gram-negative bacillus and the colony morphology on a TCBS plate was similar to that of V. parabaemolyticus. Acid production from lactose was detected after 2 days of incubation. Other biochemical tests showed typical reactions of V vulnificus. The isolate was susceptible to all of the tested antibiotics except to clindamycin, colistin and penicillin G.
Adult ; Human ; Liver Cirrhosis/complications* ; Male ; Microscopy, Electron ; Septicemia/microbiology* ; Vibrio/isolation & purification ; Vibrio/ultrastructure ; Vibrio Infections/microbiology*

Campylobacter fetus subsp. intestinalis was isolated from the blood of two different patients. One patient was a 46-year-old male with liver cirrhosis and the other a 44-year-old male with co1on carcinoma. These are the second and third documented infections of this kind in Korea. Difficulties of their isolation were well illustrated. For instance, the growth was detected after a long incubation of 4 to 6 days. All of the 3 blood cultures from the carcinoma patient, but on1y 2 of 3 specimens from the other patient, yielded the organism.
Adult ; Campylobacter/isolation & purification* ; Campylobacter Infections/microbiology ; Campylobacter fetus/isolation & purification* ; Colonic Neoplasms/microbiology ; Culture Media ; Human ; Liver Cirrhosis/microbiology ; Male ; Middle Age ; Septicemia/microbiology*

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is known to cause septicemia, mesenteric lymphadenitis enteritis and erythema nodosum. Most of the infections were found in European countries, but none in Korea ti11 now. For the first time in Korea Y. pseudotuberculosis was isolated form a 51-year-old ma1e with liver cirrhosis. The patient showed chills, abdominal pain and diarrhea followed by a comatose state. The organism was isolated from both blood and peritoneal fluid. The isolation and identification were difficult as the organism grew slowly and many of the characteristics were similar to other enteric bacilli. The isolate was susceptible to all antibiotics tested in vitro, but our chemotherapy with ampicillin and kanamycin did not save the patient's life.
Antibiotics/pharmacology ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age ; Septicemia/microbiology* ; Yersinia/drug effects ; Yersinia/isolation & purification ; Yersinia Infections/microbiology* ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Infections/microbiology*

A 40-yr-old buddhist monk was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain, fever, and confusion. He had a history of drinking untreated mountain spring water in his temple, and experienced the above symptoms for several days before admission. In past medical history, he had suffered from hepatic cirrhosis. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was isolated from his blood and ascitic fluid. The mountain spring water that he had ingested was cultivated and Y. pseudotuberculosis was also isolated. For identification of pathogenic Y. pseudotuberculosis, each isolate from the three sources (blood, ascitic fluid, and drinking water) was also analysed for the inv gene for Y. pseudotuberculosis and the virF gene for virulent plasmid by PCR. All strains were positive for both the virF and the inv genes and also positive for autoagglutination test. For relationship study, each isolate from the three sources was also analysed with serotyping and restriction endonuclease analysis of virulence plasmid DNA (REAP) using BamHI. All belonged to the serotype 4b and REAP pattern D. Thus, all these findings supported that the mountain spring water was the source of the Y. pseudotuberculosis infection in this case.
Adhesins, Bacterial/genetics ; Adult ; Agglutination Tests ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics ; DNA, Bacterial/analysis ; Feces/microbiology ; Food ; Human ; Male ; Plasmids ; Restriction Mapping ; Septicemia/diagnosis/microbiology ; Serotyping ; Virulence Factors/genetics ; *Water Supply ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis/classification/*genetics/isolation & purification ; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Infections/*diagnosis/*transmission

Outer membrane proteins of Pasteurella (P.) multocida have been known to be protective immunogens. Pasteurella lipoprotein E (PlpE) has been reported to be an important cross reactive outer membrane protein in P. multocida. The gene encoding the PlpE of P. multocida serotypes A: 3, B: 2 and D: 1 was amplified from the genomic DNA. The amplified products were cloned and the nucleotide sequence was determined. Sequence analysis of the recombinant clones revealed a single open reading frame of 1,011 bp, 1,008 bp and 1,017 bp encoding a protein with a calculated molecular mass of 37.829 kDa, 37.389 kDa and 37.965 kDa for serotypes A: 3, B: 2 and D: 1 respectively. The comparison of the plpE sequence in different capsular types revealed a high degree (>90%) of homology. Furthermore, the plpE gene of Haemorhhagic septicaemia causing serotype (B: 2) was expressed in E. coli and recombinant PlpE was strongly immunostained by antiserum against whole cell antigen, indicating that the protein is expressed in vivo.
Animals ; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins/*genetics/immunology/metabolism ; Base Sequence ; Blotting, Western ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*microbiology ; Cloning, Molecular ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Escherichia coli ; *Genetic Variation ; Hemorrhagic Septicemia/microbiology/*veterinary ; India ; Lipoproteins/*genetics/immunology/metabolism ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Open Reading Frames/genetics ; Pasteurella multocida/*genetics/immunology ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sequence Homology ; Serotyping ; Species Specificity