{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T14:45:13Z","timestamp":1789656313082,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Microbiology Society","issue":"12","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Owing to the difficulties in identifying anaerobic, non-sporulating, Gram-positive bacilli in clinical microbiology laboratories, the epidemiology and clinical spectrum of disease of many of these bacteria have been poorly understood. The application of 16S rRNA gene sequencing in characterizing bacteraemia due to anaerobic, non-sporulating Gram-positive bacilli during a 4-year period is described. The first case of <jats:italic>Olsenella uli<\/jats:italic> bacteraemia, in a patient with acute cholangitis, is also reported. Among 165 blood culture isolates of anaerobic, Gram-positive bacilli, 75 were identified as <jats:italic>Propionibacterium acnes<\/jats:italic> by phenotypic tests and 21 as members of other anaerobic, non-sporulating Gram-positive bacilli by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Of these 96 isolates, 16 (17 %) were associated with cases of clinically significant bacteraemia, among which 10 (63 %) were caused by <jats:italic>Eggerthella<\/jats:italic>, four (25 %) by <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic> and one (6 %) by each of <jats:italic>Eubacterium tenue<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>O. uli<\/jats:italic>. Five of the 10 <jats:italic>Eggerthella<\/jats:italic> isolates were <jats:italic>Eggerthella lenta<\/jats:italic>, whereas the other five belonged to two novel <jats:italic>Eggerthella<\/jats:italic> species, with <jats:italic>Eggerthella hongkongensis<\/jats:italic> being almost as prevalent as <jats:italic>Eggerthella lenta<\/jats:italic>. Underlying disease in the gastrointestinal tract, isolation of <jats:italic>Eggerthella<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>, and monomicrobial bacteraemia were associated with clinically significant bacteraemia, whereas isolation of <jats:italic>P. acnes<\/jats:italic> and polymicrobial bacteraemia were associated with pseudobacteraemia. Most patients with clinically significant bacteraemia had underlying diseases, with diseases in the gastrointestinal tract being most common. The overall mortality rate was 31 %. Immunocompromised patients with clinically significant bacteraemia due to anaerobic, non-sporulating, Gram-positive bacilli other than <jats:italic>P. acnes<\/jats:italic> should be treated with appropriate antibiotics. The unexpected frequency of isolation of <jats:italic>Eggerthella<\/jats:italic> from blood cultures and its association with clinically significant disease suggest that this genus is probably of high pathogenicity. Further studies to look for specific virulence factors are warranted.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1099\/jmm.0.45803-0","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2004,11,19]],"date-time":"2004-11-19T19:48:14Z","timestamp":1100893694000},"page":"1247-1253","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":94,"title":["Anaerobic, non-sporulating, Gram-positive bacilli bacteraemia characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing"],"prefix":"10.1099","volume":"53","author":[{"given":"Susanna KP","family":"Lau","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Patrick CY","family":"Woo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ami MY","family":"Fung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"King-man","family":"Chan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gibson KS","family":"Woo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kwok-yung","family":"Yuen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Hong Kong, University Pathology Building, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"345","reference":[{"key":"H1-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1797","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-51-5-1797","article-title":"Characterization of novel human oral isolates and cloned 16S rDNA sequences that fall in the family Coriobacteriaceae : description of Olsenella gen.nov., reclassification of Lactobacillus uli as Olsenella uli comb.nov. and description of Olsenella profusa sp. nov","volume":"51","author":"Dewhirst","year":"2001","journal-title":"Int J Syst Evol Microbiol"},{"key":"H2-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"947","DOI":"10.1099\/0022-1317-50-11-947","article-title":"Characterisation of Eubacterium -like strains isolated from oral infections","volume":"50","author":"Downes","year":"2001","journal-title":"J Med Microbiol"},{"key":"H3-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3555","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.39.10.3555-3562.2001","article-title":"Identification of clinical isolates of actinomyces species by amplified 16S ribosomal DNA restriction analysis","volume":"39","author":"Hall","year":"2001","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"},{"key":"H4-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1048","DOI":"10.1086\/516109","article-title":"Lactobacillus bacteremia and endocarditis: review of 45 cases","volume":"25","author":"Husni","year":"1997","journal-title":"Clin Infect Dis"},{"key":"H5-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1348-0421.2000.tb01242.x","article-title":"Coprobacillus catenaformis gen.nov., sp. nov., a new genus and species isolated from human feces","volume":"44","author":"Kageyama","year":"2000","journal-title":"Microbiol Immunol"},{"key":"H6-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1725","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-49-4-1725","article-title":"Phylogenetic evidence for the transfer of Eubacterium lentum to the genus Eggerthella as Eggerthella lenta gen.nov., comb. nov","volume":"49","author":"Kageyama","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int J Syst Bacteriol"},{"key":"H7-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1004","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.41.3.1004-1009.2003","article-title":"Invasive Streptococcus iniae infections outside North America","volume":"41","author":"Lau","year":"2003","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"},{"key":"H8-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1016\/j.diagmicrobio.2004.04.012","article-title":"Eggerthella hongkongensis sp.nov. and Eggerthella sinensis sp. nov., two novel Eggerthella species, account for half of the cases of Eggerthella bacteremia","volume":"49","author":"Lau","year":"2004","journal-title":"Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis"},{"key":"H9-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"695","DOI":"10.1086\/514591","article-title":"Inpatient emergencies encountered by an infectious disease consultative service","volume":"26","author":"Luk","year":"1998","journal-title":"Clin Infect Dis"},{"key":"H10-12","volume-title":"Manual of Clinical Microbiology","author":"Murray","year":"1999"},{"key":"H11-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1193","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-49-3-1193","article-title":"Cryptobacterium curtum gen.nov., sp. nov., a new genus of Gram-positive anaerobic rod isolated from human oral cavities","volume":"49","author":"Nakazawa","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int J Syst Bacteriol"},{"key":"H12-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-41-2-261","article-title":"Lactobacillus uli sp.nov. and Lactobacillus rimae sp. nov. from the human gingival crevice and emended descriptions of Lactobacillus minutus and Streptococcus parvulus","volume":"41","author":"Olsen","year":"1991","journal-title":"Int J Syst Bacteriol"},{"key":"H13-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1573","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM199012063232301","article-title":"The agent of bacillary angiomatosis.An approach to the identification of uncultured pathogens","volume":"323","author":"Relman","year":"1990","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"key":"H14-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM199207303270501","article-title":"Identification of the uncultured bacillus of Whipple's disease","volume":"327","author":"Relman","year":"1992","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"key":"H15-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1086\/380455","article-title":"Lactobacillus bacteremia, clinical significance, and patient outcome, with special focus on probiotic L.rhamnosus GG","volume":"38","author":"Salminen","year":"2004","journal-title":"Clin Infect Dis"},{"key":"H16-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4673","DOI":"10.1093\/nar\/22.22.4673","article-title":"clustal w: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice","volume":"22","author":"Thompson","year":"1994","journal-title":"Nucleic Acids Res"},{"key":"H17-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"595","DOI":"10.1099\/00207713-49-2-595","article-title":"The family Coriobacteriaceae : reclassification of Eubacterium exiguum (Poco et al .1996) and Peptostreptococcus heliotrinreducens (Lanigan 1976) as Slackia exigua gen.nov., comb. nov. and Slackia heliotrinireducens gen. nov., comb. nov., and Eubacterium lentum (Prevot 1938) as Eggerthella lenta gen. nov., comb. nov.","volume":"49","author":"Wade","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int J Syst Bacteriol"},{"key":"H18-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"584","DOI":"10.1093\/clind\/24.4.584","article-title":"The clinical significance of positive blood cultures in the 1990s: a prospective comprehensive evaluation of the microbiology, epidemiology, and outcome of bacteremia and fungemia in adults","volume":"24","author":"Weinstein","year":"1997","journal-title":"Clin Infect Dis"},{"key":"H19-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"265","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.40.1.265-267.2002","article-title":"Identification by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing of Lactobacillus salivarius bacteremic cholecystitis","volume":"40","author":"Woo","year":"2002a","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"},{"key":"H20-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1016\/S0732-8893(02)00375-9","article-title":"Diagnosis of pelvic actinomycosis by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing and its clinical significance","volume":"43","author":"Woo","year":"2002b","journal-title":"Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis"},{"key":"H21-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"805","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.40.3.805-810.2002","article-title":"Streptococcus sinensis sp.nov., a novel Streptococcus species isolated from a patient with infective endocarditis","volume":"40","author":"Woo","year":"2002c","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"},{"key":"H22-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"518","DOI":"10.1078\/072320203770865819","article-title":"Actinomyces hongkongensis sp.nov. A novel Actinomyces species isolated from a patient with pelvic actinomycosis","volume":"26","author":"Woo","year":"2003","journal-title":"Syst Appl Microbiol"},{"key":"H23-12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4227","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.39.12.4227-4232.2001","article-title":"Laribacter hongkongensis gen.nov., sp. nov., a novel Gram-negative bacterium isolated from a cirrhotic patient with bacteremia and empyema","volume":"39","author":"Yuen","year":"2001","journal-title":"J Clin Microbiol"}],"container-title":["Journal of Medical Microbiology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.microbiologyresearch.org\/content\/journal\/jmm\/10.1099\/jmm.0.45803-0?crawler=true","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,23]],"date-time":"2020-09-23T03:36:33Z","timestamp":1600832193000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.microbiologyresearch.org\/content\/journal\/jmm\/10.1099\/jmm.0.45803-0"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2004,12,1]]},"references-count":23,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2004,12,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1099\/jmm.0.45803-0","relation":{},"ISSN":["0022-2615","1473-5644"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0022-2615","type":"print"},{"value":"1473-5644","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2004,12,1]]}}}