The clinical relevance of pathogen Aerococcus urinae identification by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry: a case of sepsis in 86-year-old Caucasian male


Submitted: 13 March 2020
Accepted: 20 July 2020
Published: 5 August 2020
Abstract Views: 520
PDF: 274
HTML: 233
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

  • Jari Intra Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Milano-Bicocca, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale di Monza ASSTMonza, St Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy.
  • Cecilia Sarto Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Milano-Bicocca, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale di Monza ASST-Monza, Desio Hospital, Desio, Italy.
  • Giuseppe Serra Department of Internal Medicine, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale di Monza ASST-Monza, Desio Hospital, Desio, Italy, Italy.
  • Paolo Brambilla Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Milano-Bicocca, Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale di Monza ASST-Monza, Desio Hospital, Desio, Italy.

The infrequency of urinary tract and blood stream infections caused by Aerococcus urinae is most probably due to the difficulties in the identification of this bacterium using standard microbiological methods. With the introduction of more sensitive and accurate techniques in clinical microbiology, such as genetic approaches and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time Of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS), the incidence of infections due to A. urinae increased. Herein, we described a case of urinary tract and bloodstream infection caused by A. urinae, which occurred in an 86-year-old Caucasian man with a previous history of prostate cancer. The identification of A. urinae was performed by MALDI-TOF MS, since this microorganism cannot be identified by biochemical reactions. In this report, we highlight the need to consider MALDI-TOF MS as technique of choice for A. urinae identification in the presence of subjects with predisposing factors, such as old age, male gender, and genitourinary tract pathologies.


Intra, J., Sarto, C., Serra, G., & Brambilla, P. (2020). The clinical relevance of pathogen Aerococcus urinae identification by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry: a case of sepsis in 86-year-old Caucasian male. Microbiologia Medica, 35(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/mm.2020.8965

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations