TABLE 1.

Demographic and clinical data for 15 patients with Bifidobacterium bacteremia

Patient no.	Hospital	Age	Gender	Underlying condition(s)	Antibiotic or immunosuppressive therapy(ies) prior to onset of bacteremia	Clinical presentation	Blood culture finding(s)	Antibiotic therapy(ies)	Outcome
1	A	39 yr	Female	Diverticulitis	None	Fever, hypotension, back pain	B. longum and Clostridium paraputrificum at onset of disease, Escherichia coli 2 days later	Ampicillin, gentamicin, metronidazole, clindamycin	Recovered
2	A	81 yr	Male	Parkinson's disease, abdominal surgery due to volvulus	Cephalothin, metronidazole, and doxycycline until 2 days before onset of bacteremia	Sepsis and respiratory failure 3 days after abdominal surgery	B. longum (monomicrobial)	Benzylpenicillin	Death
3	B	81 yr	Male	Severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	Ampicillin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, cefuroxime, and meropenem until 4 days before onset of bacteremia	Fever and pneumonia	B. longum (monomicrobial), 2 of 4 blood culture bottles positive	Meropenem	Recovered
4	C	3 wk	Male	Prematurity (32 wk of gestation)	None	Sudden infant death syndrome prior to hospital admission	B. longum (monomicrobial), obtained postmortem	No	Death
5	C	40 yr	Male	Adenocarcinoma with perforated cecum	None (treated for acute leukemia at age 15 yr)	Peritonitis, septic shock	B. longum (monomicrobial)	Piperacillin-tazobactam, metronidazole	Recovered
6	D	85 yr	Male	Metastatic colorectal cancer	None	Fever	B. longum, Streptococcus oralis, and Klebsiella pneumoniae at onset of disease	Ampicillin, gentamicin	Recovered
7	E	49 yr	Female	Recurrent wound infections (over years)	Dicloxacillin at onset of bacteremia	Polymicrobial local bursitis, no signs of sepsis	B. breve (monomicrobial)	Benzylpenicillin, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin	Recovered
8	E	69 yr	Male	Infected aortic graft with aortoenteric fistula	Prednisolone due to tendinitis 4 wk prior to onset of bacteremia	Chills	B. animalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Veillonella parvula at onset of disease	Cefotaxime, ceftriaxone	Recovered
9	E	71 yr	Male	Metastatic lung cancer	Methylprednisolone at onset bacteremia, chemotherapy and radiation therapy 4 mo prior to onset of bacteremia	Septic shock	B. longum (monomicrobial)	Cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, metronidazole	Death
10	F	84 yr	Female	Pyelonephritis, hydronephrosis caused by a kidney stone	Ciprofloxacin at onset of bacteremia	Fever, chills, abdominal pain	B. breve, Bacteroides spp., and Candida glabrata at onset of disease	Cefotaxime	Recovered
11	G	84 yr	Male	Pancreatic cancer	Ciprofloxacin at onset of bacteremia	Fever, chills, abdominal pain, signs of sepsis	B. animalis and Lactobacillus johnsonii	Piperacillin-tazobactam	Recovered
12	H	98 yr	Female	Congestive heart failure, systemic amyloidosis, chronic constipation	Prednisolone at onset of bacteremia	Afebrile on admission but developed fever and dyspnea, died 14 h after admission	B. longum and Bacteroides fragilis	No	Death
13	I	2 wk	Male	Prematurity (23 wk of gestation), spontaneous gut perforation	Penicillin and gentamicin	Sepsis	B. longum (monomicrobial)	Cefotaxime, gentamicin	Recovered
14	I	5 wk	Female	Prematurity (24 wk of gestation), leaky gut after necrotizing enterocolitis	Ampicillin and gentamicin 1 wk before onset of bacteremia	Sepsis	B. longum (monomicrobial)	Ampicillin, gentamicin, metronidazole	Recovered
15	B	2 wk	Male	Prematurity (24 wk of gestation)	Ampicillin and gentamicin 1 wk before onset of bacteremia	Increasing apneas, bradycardia, temp instability	B. longum (monomicrobial)		Recovered