Fatal Neutropenic Colitis and Clostridium Septicum Bacteremia in a Breast Cancer Patient.

A fatal case of 67-year-old female with metastatic breast cancer on chemotherapy complicated with febrile neutropenia, colitis and sepsis due to Clostridium septicum is presented. Important clinical symptoms, laboratory and radiology findings together with therapy and outcome of neuropenic colitis are also discussed.

Salmonella Paratyphi Infection: Use of Nanopore Sequencing as a Vivid Alternative for the Identification of Invading Bacteria.

In our study we present an overview of the use of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing technology on the background of Enteric fever. Unlike traditional methods (e.g., qPCR, serological tests), the nanopore sequencing technology enables virtually real-time data generation and highly accurate pathogen identification and characterization. Blood cultures were obtained from a 48-year-old female patient suffering from a high fever, headache and diarrhea. Nevertheless, both the initial serological tests and stool culture appeared to be negative. Therefore, the bacterial isolate from blood culture was used for nanopore sequencing (ONT). This technique in combination with subsequent bioinformatic analyses allowed for prompt identification of the disease-causative agent as Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi A. The National Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (NIPH) independently reported this isolate also as serovar Paratyphi A on the basis of results of biochemical and agglutination tests. Therefore, our results are in concordance with certified standards. Furthermore, the data enabled us to assess some basic questions concerning the comparative genomics, i.e., to describe whether the isolated strain differs from the formerly published ones or not. Quite surprisingly, these results indicate that we have detected a novel and so far, unknown variety of this bacteria.

Early Diagnosis of Cutaneous Mucormycosis Due to Lichtheimia corymbifera After a Traffic Accident.

A case report of cutaneous mucormycosis and obstacles to early diagnosis is presented. A 38-year-old male was involved in a car accident that led to amputation of both lower limbs. Subsequently, he developed fungal wound infection of the left lower limb stump. The infection was detected very early, although the diagnosis was difficult because only a small area was affected and histopathological examination was initially negative. The infection was proven by microscopy, culture and histopathology. The isolate was identified by sequencing of the rDNA ITS region gene (internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA) as Lichtheimia corymbifera. Liposomal amphotericin B and surgery were successful in management of the disease.

The association of a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin in causative Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile strain with the clinical outcome of patients.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile strain characteristics and C. difficile infection (CDI) outcome. METHODS: Between October and December 2017, 16 hospitals collected epidemiological data according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) surveillance protocol for CDI. C. difficile isolates were characterized by ribotyping, toxin genes detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing to metronidazole, vancomycin and moxifloxacin. RESULTS: The overall mean CDI incidence density was 4.5 [95% CI 3.6-5.3] cases per 10,000 patient-days. From the 433 CDI cases, 330 (76.2%) were healthcare-associated, 52 (12.0%) cases were community-associated or of unknown origin and 51 (11.8%) CDI cases recurrent; a complicated course of CDI was reported in 65 cases (15.0%). Eighty-eight (20.3%) of patients died and 59 of them within 30 days after the CDI diagnosis. From the 379 C. difficile isolates, the most prevalent PCR ribotypes were 001 (n = 127, 33.5%) and 176 (n = 44, 11.6%). A total of 186 (49.1%) isolates showed a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin (> 4 mg/L) and 96.4% of them had Thr82Ile in the GyrA. Nineteen isolates revealed reduced susceptibility to metronidazole and two isolates to vancomycin (> 2 mg/L). A fatal outcome was associated with a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin, the advanced age of the patients and a complicated course of CDI (p<0.05). No association between ribotype, binary toxin and a reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin and complicated course or recurrent CDI was found. CONCLUSIONS: A reduced susceptibility to moxifloxacin, in causative C. difficile strains was associated with fatal outcome of the patients, therefore it is an important marker in surveillance of CDI.