J Korean Med Sci.  2011 May;26(5):679-681. 10.3346/jkms.2011.26.5.679.

Bacteremia Caused by Laribacter hongkongensis Misidentified as Acinetobacter lwoffii: Report of the First Case in Korea

• Kim DS
• Wi YM
• Choi JY
• Peck KR
• Song JH
• Ko KS

• KMID: 1777869
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2011.26.5.679

Abstract

Laribacter hongkongensis is an emerging pathogen in patients with community-acquired gastroenteritis and traveler's diarrhea. We herein report a case of L. hongkongensis infection in a 24-yr-old male with liver cirrhosis complicated by Wilson's disease. He was admitted to a hospital with only abdominal distension. On day 6 following admission, he complained of abdominal pain and his body temperature reached 38.6degrees C. The results of peritoneal fluid evaluation revealed a leukocyte count of 1,180/microL (polymorphonuclear leukocyte 74%). Growth on blood culture was identified as a gram-negative bacillus. The isolate was initially identified as Acinetobacter lwoffii by conventional identification methods in the clinical microbiology laboratory, but was later identified as L. hongkongensis on the basis of molecular identification. The patient was successfully treated with cefotaxime. To the best of our knowledge, this case is the first report of hospital-acquired L. hongkongensis bacteremia with neutrophilic ascites.

Keyword

Laribacter hongkongensis; Neutrophilic Ascites; Bacteremia

MeSH Terms

Acinetobacter/isolation & purification
Acinetobacter Infections/complications/diagnosis/microbiology
Bacteremia/complications/*microbiology
Cefotaxime/therapeutic use
Diagnosis, Differential
Gastroenteritis/complications/*diagnosis/*microbiology
Hepatolenticular Degeneration/complications/microbiology
Humans
Liver Cirrhosis/complications/microbiology
Male
Neisseriaceae/*isolation & purification
Phylogeny
Republic of Korea
Young Adult

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Phylogenetic relationships of 07AC-292 and other species of the most similar sequences, retrieved from GenBank, based on partial 16S rRNA gene sequences. This unrooted tree was constructed by method of neighbor-joining. Numbers at branching nodes are percentages of 1,000 bootstrap replications.

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