The Korean Journal of Laboratory Medicine  2011;31(2):118-121

doi:10.3343/kjlm.2011.31.2.118

A Case of Bacteremia by Neisseria gonorrhoeae Coincident with Massive Hemorrhage of Esophageal Varices.

Dahae WON 1 ; Dongheui AN ; Mi Na KIM ; Young Sang LEE

Affiliations

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Keywords

Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Bacteremia; Esophageal varices; Hemorrhage

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

A 42-yr-old man with hepatitis B virus associated liver cirrhosis was admitted to the emergency room because of multiple seizures, a history of chills and myalgia over the previous 2 weeks, and 3 days of melena. He was febrile with a temperature of 38.0degrees C. There were no symptoms and signs related to the genitourinary system, skin, or joints. Three sets of blood cultures were obtained and oxidase-positive, gram-negative diplococci were detected after 25.9-26.9 hr of incubation in all aerobic vials. The organism was positive for catalase and oxidase, and was identified as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, using a Vitek Neisseria-Haemophilus Identification card (bioMerieux Vitek, Inc., USA). Further, 16S rRNA sequencing of this isolate revealed a 99.9% homology with the published sequence of N. gonorrhoeae strain NCTC 83785 (GenBank Accession No. NR_026079.1). Acute bleeding by variceal rupture seems to be a likely route of introduction of N. gonorrhoeae from the mucosa into the blood. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of gonococcal bacteremia in Korea.