Metronidazole resistance among Prevotella spp. is rare. We report here the first case of bacteremia due to a high-level metronidazole-resistant Prevotella sp. responsible for treatment failure.
CASE REPORTA 78-year-old man with a past history of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and diverticulitis was hospitalized because of fever and altered clinical status. Physical examination was normal and no abnormalities were revealed by a systematic computed tomography scan of the abdomen. Laboratory studies revealed a white blood cell count of 28,000 cells/mm 3 (90% polymorphonuclear leukocytes), a C-reactive protein level of 139 mg/liter, and a blood glucose level of 2 g/liter. Three sets of blood culture samples were collected in BACTEC Plus Aerobic/F medium and BACTEC Plus Anaerobic/F medium (BACTEC 9000 system; Becton Dickinson, Le Pont de Claix, France). The patient was treated empirically with intravenous cefotaxime (1 g three times daily) and ofloxacin (200 mg twice daily). Blood cultures taken at the admission detected the presence of Escherichia coli (susceptible to both antibiotics used) and Streptococcus anginosus (susceptible to cefotaxime). Urine and lower respiratory tract samples remained negative after quantitative bacteriologic cultures. On day 7, the patient remained febrile and new blood cultures (three sets) were taken while intravenous metronidazole (500 mg three times daily) and teicoplanin (400 mg once daily) were added.A strictly anaerobic, nonmotile, gram-negative rod was the only bacterium detected in the three anaerobic blood culture vials of the three sample sets taken on day 7. In vitro susceptibility testing was performed by using a standard disk diffusion method on brucella agar supplemented with 5% sheep blood, 1 mg of vitamin K 1 /liter, and 5 mg of hemin/liter (7). Metronidazole susceptibility was determined by using 16-g metronidazole Neo-Sensitabs (Rosco Diagnostica, Taastrup, Denmark). According to the criteria of the Comité de l'Antibiogramme de la Société Française de Microbiologie for susceptibility testing of anaerobes (7), the isolate was considered susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanate, piperacillin-tazobactam, cefoxitin, imipenem, chloramphenicol, clindamycin, and metronidazole after 48 h of incubation. It was also intermediate to cefotaxime and resistant to ofloxacin. -lactamase production was demonstrated by using a nitrocefin test (Cefinase; bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France). Using an Etest method (13), we found a MIC ratio of Ͼ500 for cefotaxime/ cefotaxime-clavulanic acid and ceftazidime/ceftazidime-clavulanic acid, suggesting the presence of an extended-spectrum -lactamase.It has been shown that metronidazole resistance may be only detected after prolonged incubation time (9, 12). Plates were therefore incubated for additional 48 h. This permitted us to observe that small colonies began to appear inside the metronidazole inhibition zone after 72 h and became more numerous after 96 h. The same phenomenon was also observed within the ellipse area of a metronidaz...