Korean J Lab Med.  2005 Feb;25(1):56-60.

A Case of Arcanobacterium haemolyticum Sepsis

• Jun KR
• Chun SH
• Park SJ
• Kim DJ
• Bae HG
• Kim MN

Abstract

Arcanobacterium haemolyticum is a beta-hemolytic coryneform bacillus. It has been implicated as an etiologic agent of non-streptococcal pharyngitis and less frequently a cause of skin and wound infections, osteomyelitis, pneumonia, endocarditis, sepsis, and central nervous system infections. We describe a case of A. hemolyticum sepsis reported for the first time in Korea. A 61-year-old man with a diabetic foot was admitted due to a high fever. Three sets of blood cultures taken at the emergency room yielded coryneform bacilli. The organism was beta-hemolytic on blood agar plate, catalase-negative, and non-motile. It was identified as A. haemolyticum by Rapid CB Plus (Remel, Kansas, USA) and API Coryne (BioMerieux SA, Marcy l`Etoile, France) and confirmed by CAMP inhibition reaction. It was susceptible to penicillin, ceftriaxone, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, and vancomycin by the disk diffusion method using the breakpoint criteria of National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards for streptococci other than Streptococcus pneumoniae. The patient was improved with partial amputation of the right big toe and antimicrobial therapy with ampicillin/sulbactam. If Arcanobacterium is isolated from normally sterile sites or culture specimens properly collected from infected tissues, it should be identified to the species level. Commercial biochemical test kits specialized in corynebacteria and CAMP test are useful for species identification of A. haemolyticum.

Keyword

Arcanobacterium haemolyticum; Sepsis; CAMP inhibition reaction

MeSH Terms

Agar
Amputation
Arcanobacterium*
Bacillus
Ceftriaxone
Central Nervous System Infections
Ciprofloxacin
Diabetic Foot
Diffusion
Emergency Service, Hospital
Endocarditis
Erythromycin
Fever
Humans
Kansas
Korea
Middle Aged
Osteomyelitis
Penicillins
Pharyngitis
Pneumonia
Sepsis*
Skin
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Toes
Vancomycin
Wound Infection
Agar
Ceftriaxone
Ciprofloxacin
Erythromycin
Penicillins
Vancomycin