Seri Jeong1, Ji Yeon Park1, Sang Hoon Han2, Yangsoon Lee1,3, Dongeun Yong1, Kyungwon Lee1, Yunsop Chong1
1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance, 2Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Health Insurance Corporation Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea
A 60-year-old man presented with a 1-day history of fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. He was diagnosed with severe septic shock on the basis of a body temperature of 38.9℃, heart rate of 92/min, respiratory rate of 25/min, WBC count of 22,970/μL, C-reactive protein (CRP) level of 136 mg/L, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) of 34.0 mg/dL, and creatinine of 2.98 mg/dL. On blood culture, Gram-positive cocci were detected in all 6 bottles. Small grayish non-hemolytic colonies were found on blood agar plates after incubation at 37℃ for 2 days. The isolates were negative for catalase and L-pyrrolidonyl-β-naphthylamide hydrolysis, and positive for bile-esculin and leucine aminopeptidase activity. The strain was identified as Streptococcusgallolyticus subsp. pasteurianus using Vitek 2 GP II systems. We performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing and detected 100% identity with S. gallolyticus subsp. pasteurianus strain CIP 107122T (1,345/ 1,345-bp). The patient recovered after receiving ampicillin-sulbactam. This is the first report of phenotypic and genetic identification of S. gallolyticus subsp. pasteurianus causing severe septic shock in a Korean patient. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2011;14:144-147)