Bacteremia and Skin Infections in Four Patients Caused by Helicobacter-Like Organisms.

ABSTRACT: Background:Enterohepatic Helicobacter-like organisms (HLO) have been recognized as causes of human infection since 1984, primarily as a cause of bacteremia and cellulitis in immunocompromised individuals, but the spectrum of illness due to HLO has expanded based on numerous reports from Japan. Methods:We report 4 epidemiologically unrelated immunocompetent patients with HLO bacteremia diagnosed within a 2-year period. Three patients had cellulitis and 1 patient had unexplained fever. 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) sequence analysis of 2 isolates suggested that they were Helicobacter cinaedi, and whole-genome sequencing showed that they differed only slightly from reference strains. Conclusions:We believe that this syndrome is more common than reported, but it is easily overlooked because the skin lesions resemble streptococcal cellulitis and respond very rapidly to ?-lactam antibiotics, and the organism is difficult to isolate from the blood. All HLO in our series were isolated from blood using the ESP system and were not detected in 2 other widely used commercial blood culture systems.

SUBMITTER: Perez-Santiago J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6636245 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature