A Case of Sepsis by Bifidobacterium longum / 대한임상병리학회지

ABSTRACT

Bifidobacterium longum, indigenous bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract, is a species of anaerobic non-spore-forming gram-positive bacilli, and appears to play an important role in preventing overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. This organism is very rarely isolated from clinical specimens. It is known to be very difficult to identify Bifidobacterium longum due to not only the variability in aerotolerance, colony morphology and stainability on gram staining, resulting the failure of distinguishing from other anaerobic non-spore-forming gram-positive bacilli by the conventional biochemical tests. Definitive identification of genus Bifidobacterium requires the analysis of the end-products of metabolism, volatile and non-volatile fatty acids, by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). We report a case of sepsis caused by Bifidobacterium longum in a 19-year-old male who developed high fever, jaundice and hepatomegaly after he had been introduced with many small gold needles. Anaerobic non-spore-forming gram-positive bacilli were isolated from his blood and identified as Bifidobacterium longum by performing biochemical tests and the analysis of the metabolic end-products by GLC. He has been completely recovered after ticarcillin and metronidazole therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first report of incidental sepsis by Bifidobacterium longum in the world.