Volume 16, Number 7—July 2010
Letter
Endocarditis Caused by Actinobaculum schaalii, Austria
Table
Comparison of isolated Actinobaculum schaalii with related human pathogens reported in the literature
| Characteristic | Isolate that caused endocarditis |
Reaction of (reference)* |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. schaalii (1,2) | Actinobaculum massiliae (3) | Actinobaculum urinale (4) | Arcanobacterium pyogenes | Actinomyces turicensis (1,2) | |||
| A. schaalii† | |||||||
| Catalase reaction | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| β-hemolysis on sheep blood agar | – | –/w‡ | – | w | + | w | |
| Nitrate reduction | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Pyrazinamidase | – | V | + | – | – | – | |
| Pyrrolidonyl arylamidase | + | + | – | – | + | – | |
| Alkaline phosphatase | + | –§ | – | – | V | – | |
| β-glucuroniadase | – | – | – | + | + | – | |
| β-galactosidase | – | – | – | – | + | – | |
| α-glucosidase | + | + | + | – | + | + | |
| N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase | – | – | – | – | V | – | |
| Esculin hydrolysis | – | –§ | – | – | – | – | |
| Urease activity | – | – | – | + | – | – | |
| Gelatin hydrolysis |
– |
– |
– |
– |
+ |
– |
|
| Acid from | |||||||
| Glucose | – | V | + | + | + | + | |
| Ribose | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| Xylose | + | V | + | – | + | + | |
| Mannitol | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Maltose | + | + | + | + | + | V | |
| Lactose | – | – | – | – | + | – | |
| Sucrose | + | V | – | + | V | + | |
| Glycogen | – | – | + | – | V | – | |
*API Coryne system (bioMérieux, Craponne, France) profile for our isolate was compared with those described in the references (Actinobaculum schaalii [14 strains], A. massiliae [1 strain], A. urinale [1 strain], A. turicensis [43 strains]) and those in the manufacturer´s database for Arcanobacterium pyogenes. +, >90% of strains positive; –, >90% strains negative; V, variable; w, weak.
†In API Coryne, the strain gave the profile number 4110621 (unacceptable profile because of lack of specificity).
‡A. schaalii was described as nonhemolytic for 5 patients (1) and as showing weak β-hemolysis only after 2–5 d in 9 cases (2).
§Reported as positive for 1 of 14 strains.
