Infections Caused by Unusual Methylobacterium Species

Lai, Chih‐Cheng; Cheng, Aristine; Liu, Wei-Lun; Tan, Che-Kim; Huang, Yu-Tsung; Chung, Kuei-Pin; Lee, Meng-Rui; Hsueh, Po-Ren

doi:10.1128/jcm.01241-11

Cited by 54 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…These results suggest that M. radiotolerans may colonize PICC or CVC lines. This was true in the recent report by Lai et al (8) in Taiwan, in which the two cases with M. radiotolerans bacteremia were also CVC line related. In another report of patients with hemodialysis from Italy, CVC line colonization with M. radiotolerans was found to be the cause of repeated febrile episodes in the patients (2).…”

supporting

confidence: 49%

“…Of these pink-colored organisms, Methylobacterium mesophilicum has occasionally been reported as an opportunistic pathogen that may infect immunocompromised hosts, such as patients with malignancy, organ transplant, HIV infection, renal failure, or alcoholism (4-7). Methylobacterium radiotolerans is less known, however, with only two series of infections reported thus far (2,8). In this study, we report four cases of central venous line-related M. radiotolerans infection in patients who had underlying leukemia.…”

mentioning

confidence: 80%

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Microbiological and Clinical Features of Four Cases of Catheter-Related Infection by Methylobacterium radiotolerans

Tarrand

Han

2015

J Clin Microbiol

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Four cases of central venous catheter-related Methylobacterium radiotolerans infection are presented here. The patients were all long-term catheter carriers with an underlying diagnosis of leukemia, and they mostly manifested fevers. The isolated bacterial strains all showed far better growth on buffered charcoal yeast extract agar during the initial isolation and/or subcultures than they did on sheep blood or chocolate agar. This microbiological feature may improve the culture recovery of this fastidious pink Gram-negative bacillus that has rarely been isolated in clinical microbiology laboratories. Methylobacterium species are fastidious aerobic Gram-negative bacilli (1). They are of environmental origin and are rarely isolated in clinical microbiology laboratories (2, 3). Of these pink-colored organisms, Methylobacterium mesophilicum has occasionally been reported as an opportunistic pathogen that may infect immunocompromised hosts, such as patients with malignancy, organ transplant, HIV infection, renal failure, or alcoholism (4-7). Methylobacterium radiotolerans is less known, however, with only two series of infections reported thus far (2,8). In this study, we report four cases of central venous line-related M. radiotolerans infection in patients who had underlying leukemia. We paid attention to the culture features of the bacterial strains.These cases occurred from 2009 to 2014 in patients at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, a comprehensive cancer center with 600 beds in Houston, TX. Anticancer chemotherapy often required the long-term use of indwelling venous catheters. Cultures of the blood samples from patients with suspected bloodstream infection were performed using the Bactec 9240 automated system with Plus Aerobic/F bottles (BD Diagnostic Systems, Sparks, MD) and Isolator tubes (Wampole Laboratories, Princeton, NJ) (9). Typically, a 20-ml blood sample was divided equally into a Bactec bottle and an Isolator tube for cultures. The bottle was incubated for 7 days at 35°C with aeration in the system. The Isolator tube was processed by centrifugation to pellet the lysed cellular sludge, which was evenly divided and spread onto four agar plates. Before October 2009, culture involved two sheep blood agar plates and two chocolate agar plates; after this time, one buffered charcoal yeast extract plate (BCYE) was included in exchange for one sheep blood agar plate. All the plates were from BBL (BD Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, MD). The plates were incubated for 4 days at 35°C in 5% CO 2 to allow the bacterial or fungal colonies to be counted. About 30,000 blood cultures were performed annually at M. D. Anderson during the study period.The fastidious nature of the M. radiotolerans strains required 16S rRNA gene sequencing for the initial identification, using a previously published method (10). Briefly, bacterial genomic DNA was extracted from cultured colonies and amplified by PCR for a 594-bp amplicon in the mid-region of the gene using two universal bacterial primers (5=-TGCCAG...

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supporting

confidence: 49%

mentioning

confidence: 80%

Microbiological and Clinical Features of Four Cases of Catheter-Related Infection by Methylobacterium radiotolerans

Tarrand

Han

2015

J Clin Microbiol

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“…Identification of Methylobacterium is performed using commercially available manual-identification test strips (8,9). However, determination to the species level by these systems can be difficult.…”

Section: Microbiology Laboratory Identification and Antibiotic Suscmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methylobacterium and Its Role in Health Care-Associated Infection

2014

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bMethylobacterium species are a cause of health care-associated infection, including infections in immunocompromised hosts. The ability of Methylobacterium species to form biofilms and to develop resistance to high temperatures, drying, and disinfecting agents may explain the colonization of Methylobacterium in the hospital environment in, e.g., endoscopes. Due to its slow growth, it can be easily missed during microbiological surveillance of endoscope reprocessing. The purpose of this minireview is to present an overview of documented infections and cross-contaminations with Methylobacterium related to endoscopic procedures and to illustrate the health care-associated relevance of this slow-growing bacterium.

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“…Cases of human infection, causing different forms of disease, have been reported in immunocompromised individuals (3,12,13). These patients had AIDS or oncological pathologies, had undergone organ transplantation, were receiving chronic hemodialysis, or had been diagnosed with alcoholism (14)(15)(16)(17). M. mesophilicum infections were previously reported only in hospitalized patients and the disease was described as a nosocomial infection.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, researchers from Taiwan reported human infection by a member of the Methylobacterium family in 2011 (15). The investigation was conducted at the Taiwan National Medical University during 2000-2010.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%