Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol | Volume 4, Issue 2 | Case Report | Open Access

Eggerthella lenta Bacteremia in a 91-Year-Old Male

Hin Fung Tsang¹, Wai Ming Leung¹ and Sze Chuen Cesar Wong^2*

¹Department of Clinical Laboratory and Pathology, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China ²Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China

^*Correspondance to: Sze Chuen Cesar Wong 

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Abstract

Eggerthella lenta, previously known as Eubacterium lentum, is a catalase positive, hydrogen sulfide positive, indole negative, non-motile, non-sporulating and slow-growing obligate anaerobic Grampositive bacillus that belongs to the family Coriobacteriaceae. Infection by E. lenta is usually underrecognized. A 91-year-old male presented to the emergency department with a complaint of fever. The patient had no headache. Other symptoms noted at presentation included mild chills, poor appetite, and enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Multiple gallstones were identified in the gall bladder but there was no evidence of cholangitis. Urine culture and blood culture were performed, and the patient received meropenem therapy before the blood culture result was obtained. After 4 days of incubation, Gram-positive bacilli grew in an anaerobic blood culture bottle. The positive blood culture broth was inoculated onto Columbia sheep blood agar (bioMerieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) and incubated an aerobically for 72 h. Small and translucent colonies grew on the Columbia sheep blood agar and Gram-positive bacillus was observed by Gram staining. Analysis of the colonies by two Matrix Assisted Light Desorption/Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) platforms (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany; bioMerieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) identified the isolated organism as E. lenta. The patient was diagnosed with E. lenta bacteremia. In this case, we described a patient with a potentially fatal bacteremia caused by E. lenta and demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS is a promising, fast, and accurate technology for the identification of clinically important anaerobic bacteria and its consistency in identifying bacteria by different platforms.

Keywords:

Eggerthella lenta; Bacteremia; MALDI-TOF

Citation:

Tsang HF, Leung WM, Cesar Wong SC. Eggerthella lenta Bacteremia in a 91-Year-Old Male. Ann Infect Dis Epidemiol. 2019; 4(2): 1043.