Haemophilus segnis polymicrobial and monomicrobial bacteraemia identified by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing

J Med Microbiol. 2002 Aug;51(8):635-640. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-51-8-635.

Abstract

This paper reports a case of Haemophilus segnis polymicrobial bacteraemia and a case of H. segnis monomicrobial bacteraemia identified by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. In the first case, a gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus was isolated with Streptococcus intermedius and S. sanguis from the blood culture of a 32-year-old intravenous drug addict with left thoracic empyema. In the second case, a gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus was isolated from the blood culture of an 82-year-old woman with Clostridium difficile colitis and septicaemic shock. Both gram-negative coccobacilli grew on chocolate agar as colonies of 1 mm in diameter after incubation for 24 h at 37 degress C in air with CO2 5%, but only to pinpoint sizes on blood agar under the same incubation conditions. Both strains were factor V-dependent, but not factor X-dependent. For the first isolate, the Vitek system (NHI) showed that it was 56% likely to be Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and 40% Neisseria subflava; whereas the API system (NH) showed that it was 58% likely to be H. aphrophilus/paraphrophilus and 42% H. parainfluenzae. For the second isolate, the Vitek system (NHI) showed that it was 95% likely to be H. influenzae VIII; whereas the API system (NH) showed that it was 58% likely to be H. aphrophilus/paraphrophilus and 42% H. parainfluenzae. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that there were four base differences between isolate 1 and H. segnis and two base differences between isolate 2 and H. segnis, indicating that both isolates most closely resembled a strain of H. segnis. Only two cases of H. segnis bacteraemia were found in the English scientific literature, one in a case of infective endocarditis and the other in a case of pancreatic abscess. Including the present two cases, the overall mortality of H. segnis bacteraemia was 50%.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Bacteremia / microbiology
  • Colitis / microbiology
  • Colitis / pathology
  • DNA, Bacterial / chemistry
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • Empyema, Pleural / microbiology
  • Female
  • Haemophilus / classification*
  • Haemophilus / genetics
  • Haemophilus / growth & development
  • Haemophilus Infections / microbiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Phylogeny
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / chemistry
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S