Korean J Clin Microbiol.  2010 Jun;13(2):90-92. 10.5145/KJCM.2010.13.2.90.

Clostridium symbiosum Isolated from Blood

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. micro.lee@samsung.com

Abstract

Clostridium symbiosum was isolated from the blood of a 61-year-old immunocompromised woman who had diagnosed ovarian cancer with multiple metastases and who had developed persistent tachycardia. A blood culture was drawn from the peripherally inserted central catheter, and non-spore-forming gram-negative rods were detected in an anaerobic vial. The organism showed tiny and pinpoint colonies and was unidentified by Vitek II (bioMerieux, France). The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed a 99.4% identity with C. symbiosum. To our knowledge, this represents the first report of C. symbiosum isolation in Korea.

Keyword

Clostridium symbiosum; Immunocompromised patient; Gram's stain; 16S rRNA sequencing

MeSH Terms

Catheters
Clostridium
Clostridium symbiosum
Female
Genes, rRNA
Gentian Violet
Humans
Immunocompromised Host
Korea
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Metastasis
Ovarian Neoplasms
Phenazines
Tachycardia
Gentian Violet
Phenazines

Figure

  • Fig. 1. Tiny and pinpoint Clostridium symbiosum colonies grown for 48 hours on Brucella agar.

  • Fig. 2. Gram stain of Clostridium symbiosum showed Gram negative rod-shaped bacteria under a light microscope (×1,000).


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