Early prosthetic valve endocarditis caused by Corynebacterium amycolatum: the first case reported in Brazil

Non-diphtheriae Corynebacterium species are usually considered as contaminants of clinical specimens due to their widely environmental distribution and colonization of the human skin and mucous membranes. However, these bacteria have been increasingly recognized as agents of life-threatening infect...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jaqueline Abel da Rocha, Natalia Chilinque Zambão da Silva, Ana SDN Silva, Rafael Guaresma Garrido, Beatriz Meurer Moreira, Ianick Souto Martins
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 2018-09-01
Series:Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/10587
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Non-diphtheriae Corynebacterium species are usually considered as contaminants of clinical specimens due to their widely environmental distribution and colonization of the human skin and mucous membranes. However, these bacteria have been increasingly recognized as agents of life-threatening infections mainly in individuals in immunosuppressive conditions. These organisms have vast variation in morphology and biochemical reaction, characteristics that make the correct identification of Corynebacterium at the species level extremely difficult using conventional phenotypic methods. The precise identification of C. amycolatum requires approaches rarely available in conventional clinical microbiology laboratories, such as API Coryne system, 16s rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing. In this setting, MALDI-TOF, a quick, accurate, and relatively unexpansive molecular technique, arises as a cost-effective alternative for characterizing these agents. Here, a rare and lethal case of endocarditis caused by C. amycolatum is presented. This is the first case of infective endocarditis due to C. amycolatum reported in Brazil.
ISSN:1972-2680