Volume 16, Number 7—July 2010
Letter
Endocarditis Caused by Actinobaculum schaalii, Austria
Martin Hoenigl, Eva Leitner, Thomas Valentin, Gernot Zarfel, Helmut J.F. Salzer, Robert Krause, and Andrea J. Grisold
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.
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