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Published on: February 23, 2014
Corynebacterium striatum: an emerging respiratory pathogen
Malini Shariff1, Aditi Aditi2, Kiran Beri3
1Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. malini.shariff@gmail.com.
Introduction:
Corynebacterium spp. are primarily considered normal flora and dismissed when isolated from clinical specimens. In recent years, Corynebacterium striatum has emerged as a multi-drug resistant human pathogen which can cause nosocomial outbreaks. The organism has infrequently been noted to cause respiratory infections. A retrospective study was conducted to identify the clinical and microbiological features of respiratory infection by Corynebacterium striatum.
Methodology:
C. striatum isolates from clinical and surveillance samples were tested for susceptibility to antimicrobials and typed by Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Clinical data was obtained through a retrospective review of records.
Results:
15 isolates from clinical and surveillance samples of 11 hospitalised patients were included. The patients suffered from either an exacerbation of COPD (n = 9) or pneumonia (n = 2). The isolates were all multi-drug resistant. RAPD typing found no evidence of an outbreak/ transmission between patients.
Conclusions:
Corynebacterium spp. must be considered potential pathogens. Suspicious isolates should be identified to the species level since Corynebacterium striatum is often multi-drug resistant.
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