Ann Clin Microbiol.  2017 Sep;20(3):74-79. 10.5145/ACM.2017.20.3.74.

First Case of Psychrobacter sanguinis Bacteremia in a Korean Patient

• Lim S
• Yu HJ
• Lee S
• Joo EJ
• Yeom JS
• Woo HY
• Park H
• Kwon MJ

• KMID: 2424234
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2017.20.3.74

Abstract

Psychrobacter sanguinis has been described as a Gram-negative, aerobic coccobacilli originally isolated from environments and seaweed samples. To date, 6 cases of P. sanguinis infection have been reported. A 53-year-old male was admitted with a generalized tonic seizure lasting for 1 minute with loss of consciousness and a mild fever of 37.8℃. A Gram stain revealed Gram-negative, small, and coccobacilli-shaped bacteria on blood culture. Automated microbiology analyzer identification using the BD BACTEC FX (BD Diagnostics, Germany) and VITEK2 (bioMérieux, France) systems indicated the presence of Methylobacterium spp., Aeromonas salmonicida, and the Moraxella group with low discrimination. The GenBank Basic Local Alignment Search Tool and an Ez-Taxon database search revealed that the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate showed 99.30% and 99.88% homology to 859 base-pairs of the corresponding sequences of P. sanguinis, respectively (GenBank accession numbers JX501674.1 and HM212667.1). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first human case of P. sanguinis bacteremia in Korea. It is notable that we identified a case based on blood specimens that previously had been misidentified by a commercially automated identification analyzer. We utilized 16S rRNA gene sequencing as a secondary method for correctly identifying this microorganism.

Keyword

Bacteremia; Psychrobacter sanguinis; 16S ribosomal RNA

MeSH Terms

Aeromonas salmonicida
Bacteremia*
Bacteria
Databases, Nucleic Acid
Discrimination (Psychology)
Fever
Genes, rRNA
Humans
Korea
Male
Methods
Methylobacterium
Middle Aged
Moraxella
Psychrobacter*
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Seaweed
Seizures
Unconsciousness
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Graph showing change in body temperature, white blood cell count (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels during admission days.

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  Fig. 2. Colonial and microscopic morphology of Psychrobacter sanguinis. (A) Non-pigmented and non-hemolytic colonies with circular and smooth edges on a blood agar plate. (B) Gram-negative coccobacilli (Gram stain, ×1,000).

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  Fig. 3. Unrooted neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA sequences of Psychrobacter sanguinis and 20 similar organisms.

Reference

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