Summary
Globicatella sanguinis is a streptococcus like organism that has been rarely isolated from clinical specimens. The epidemiological and clinical significance of this pathogen remains to be determined, although the publ ished data suggest its opportunistic nature and the capability of causing serious infections.
The presented case is that of sepsis due to Globicatella sanguinis, which complicated with shock and ended by death in a 48-year-old man. The patient was admitted to hospital because of progressive diarrhoea and vomiting for five days. He had a history of abundant alcohol consumption for 20 years. The state of the patient complicated with septic shock on the first hospitalization day. Gram-positive, catalase negative cocci occurring in short chains were isolated from blood culture. Biochemical characteristics of the strain determined by the Rapid ID 32 Strep V3.0 system corresponded to those of G. sanguinis. Resistance to ceftriaxone, clindamycin and trimethoprim/sulfametot xazole of the isolate was established by disk diffusion method. Despite all the efforts, the patient died on the fifth day.
Conclusions. Due to complicated identification and a small number of described cases the pathogenic significance of Globicatella spp. is still only partially known. Globicatella sp. is especially rarely encountered in clinical laboratories, therefore technicians and microbiologists are not familiar enough with their phenotypic characteristics and identification particularities. Due to this, the pathogen may be overl ooked when isolated or reported as unidentified streptococcus-like strain. 16s rRNA gene sequencing should be a necessary step toi wards complete bacterium identification essential for the characterisation of this rarely encountered organism and further definition of its clinical significance.
Keywords: Globicatella sanguinis, Streptococcus uberis, sepsis, septic shock.
