Abstract
Haemophilus parainfluenzae was isolated from a bile specimen of a 56-year-old patient with elevated liver enzymes and chronic cholecystitis. Several factors contributing to nonbacteremic H. parainfluenzae infection of the biliary tract include (i) the not infrequent occurrence of H. parainfluenzae in stool specimens, (ii) the presence of an outer membrane protein similar to those found in enteric bacteria which facilitates adherence to the colonic mucosa, and (iii) an adequate supply of V factor (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) supplied from bile and the local flora, which is necessary for H. parainfluenzae's growth. Because H. parainfluenzae rarely occurs in the biliary tract, direct cultivation of bile specimens on chocolate agar seems unwarranted. However, bile specimens showing a gram-negative coccobacillus on a Gram-stained smear that fails to grow on routine media should be subcultured on chocolate agar.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (147.5 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Beauvais C., Berenbaum F., Spentchian M., Prier A., Kaplan G. Early diagnosis of vertebral osteomyelitis due to a rare pathogen: Haemophilus parainfluenzae. J Rheumatol. 1992 Mar;19(3):491–493. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Black C. T., Kupferschmid J. P., West K. W., Grosfeld J. L. Haemophilus parainfluenzae infections in children, with the report of a unique case. Rev Infect Dis. 1988 Mar-Apr;10(2):342–346. doi: 10.1093/clinids/10.2.342. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cattier B., Caillon J., Quentin R. A case of biliary tract infection caused by Haemophilus parainfluenzae. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1992 Feb;11(2):197–199. doi: 10.1007/BF01967079. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chattopadhyay B., Silverstone P. H., Winwood R. S. Liver abscess caused by Haemophilus parainfluenzae. Postgrad Med J. 1983 Dec;59(698):788–789. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.59.698.788. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Chunn C. J., Jones S. R., McCutchan J. A., Young E. J., Gilbert D. N. Haemophilus parainfluenzae infective endocarditis. Medicine (Baltimore) 1977 Mar;56(2):99–113. doi: 10.1097/00005792-197703000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Greene J. N., Sandin R. L., Villanueva L., Sinnott J. T. Haemophilus parainfluenzae endocarditis in a patient with mitral valve prolapse. Ann Clin Lab Sci. 1993 May-Jun;23(3):203–206. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kayser F. H. Changes in the spectrum of organisms causing respiratory tract infections: a review. Postgrad Med J. 1992;68 (Suppl 3):S17–S23. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Liljemark W. F., Bloomquist C. G., Lai C. H. Clustering of an outer membrane adhesin of Haemophilus parainfluenzae. Infect Immun. 1992 Feb;60(2):687–689. doi: 10.1128/iai.60.2.687-689.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Morton D. J., Williams P. Characterization of the outer-membrane proteins of Haemophilus parainfluenzae expressed under iron-sufficient and iron-restricted conditions. J Gen Microbiol. 1989 Feb;135(Pt 2):445–451. doi: 10.1099/00221287-135-2-445. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mégraud F., Bébéar C., Dabernat H., Delmas C. Haemophilus species in the human gastrointestinal tract. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 1988 Jun;7(3):437–438. doi: 10.1007/BF01962361. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Palmer G. G. Haemophili in faeces. J Med Microbiol. 1981 Feb;14(1):147–150. doi: 10.1099/00222615-14-1-147. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]