Bacteriology Flashcards
Fastidious Gram negative rods
Haemophilus influenza cause of CNS, pulmonary, eye, ear infections
Growth factor requirement (X = hemin and V= NAD)
Growth on choc agar not BAP, requires high level C02
15 – 20% resistance to Ampicillin by beta lactamase production
H. parainfluenza – requires V, usually NF
H. aphrophilus- does not require X or V factor, cause of abscesses (liver, lung, brain) & endocarditis
H. ducreyi – requires X factor (Chancroid - venereal disease)
Listeria monocytogenes
Listeria monocytogenes – small gram positive rod
catalase positive
beta hemolytic colony
intracellular pathogen in macrophages
tumbling motility
more motile at 25*C than 35*C
cold loving – grows well at 4*C can use to enrich cultures
source of infection = dairy products, deli case foods, can be carried in feces,
pathogen of pregnant – can cause stillbirths or immune suppressed (CNS and sepsis)
Glucose Fermenters/Oxidase +
Vibrio cholerae
Rice water stools – mucus flecks in liquid stool
Toxin – receptor on epithelial cell –activates adenylate cyclase – increases cAMP – hyper secretion of NaCl and H20
Halophilic – salt loving , 1% salt enhances growth
Alkaline peptone water enhancement
Selective media – TCBS = thio citrate bile sucrose agar, turns yellow due to sucrose fermentation
01 most virulent – classic & El Tor – toxin +
Selective and differentiation media for salmonella
Salmonella Shigella Agar -Salmonella and Shigella are colorless
Hektoen agar – Salmonella produces H2S on media - black colored
Beta hemolytic Streptococcus
Grouping of Streptococcus using the “C” carbohydrate in the cell wall of the bacteria
Latex agglutination - Lancefield grouping system defining A,B,C,F, and G, the human Strep
Strep pyogenes – Group A beta Streptococcus
Bacitracin –susceptible, inhibited (zone ng @ disk)
SXT - resistant (Bactrim)
PYR – positive (pyrrolidonyl arylmidase)
No resistance to Penicillin – drug of choice
Clostridium species
Gram positive bacilli (boxcar shaped) with spores
Clostridium perfringens –
double zone of beta hemolysis
predominant gram positive anaerobic pathogen found in intestine
reverse camp test +
C. botulinum –
food borne toxin ingestion in adults
spore ingestion in small children
toxin causes muscles to go flaccid
Catalase Positive
Staphylococcus spp.
Micrococcus spp.
Bacillus spp.
Listeria monocytogenes
Corynebacterium spp.
Yersinia pestis
Anaerobic non-spore form Gram positive bacilli
Pasteurella multocida
Cat and Dog bites/NF in animal’s mouth
Small gram negative coccobacilli
Grows on blood / not MacConkey agar
Sensitive to penicillin / Oxidase positive
Other dog bite organism– Capnocytophaga canimorsus – very pleomorphic gram negative rod
Facultative anaerobes
grow in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, most bacteria are facultative
Yersinia pestis - Plague
Possible organism of bioterrorism
Obligate flea rodent flea cycle
Flea bite leads to Bubonic form with painful buboes (lymph node swelling)
Pneumonic form- bacteremic spread or patient to patient fatality >=50%
Southwestern part of USA
Grows on BAP, catalase +, oxidase -
Bipolar staining “safety pin” gram negative
Aerotolerant anaerobes
anaerobes that are not killed by exposure to oxygen (clostridium tertium)
Staphylococcus aureus
Virulence factors – Protein A, capsular polysaccharides,
enzymes (coagulase), toxins, and hemolysins
Diseases:
toxic shock syndrome (TSST-1)
scalded skin syndrome (Exfoliatin (SSS)
soft tissue infection (Panton valentine leucocidin – PVL)
food poisoning (Enterotoxins)
bacteremia and endocarditis
Furazolidone susceptible (Microcossus resistant)
Unique susceptibility issues:
MRSA (Methicillin resistant Staph aureus)
Penicillin binding protein (PBP) produced by mec A gene codes for resistance to oxacillin
Oxidase Positive
Neisseria spp
Moraxella spp
Pseudomonas spp
Aeromonas spp
Helicobacter pylori
Campylobacter jejuni
Vibrio cholerae
Plesiomonas spp
Burkholderia cepacia
Achromobacter
Alkaligenes
Brucella spp.
Spirochetes
Borrelia burgdorferi - Lyme’s disease
tick vector (Ixodes)
Borrelia recurrentis - relapsing fever - human body louse
Leptospira interrogans - Leptospirosis, rats and other animals, water association
Treponema pallidum – syphilis
RPR
VDRL
Serologic or molecular diagnosis
Culture Media
Agar media –
Blood agar- 5% sheep’s blood agar - hemolysis
Chocolate agar – “cooked” blood agar – enriched
MacConkey agar – gram negative bacilli – fermentation of lactose
Concepts of Selective and Differential media –
Selective – compound/antibiotic added to media to select for a particular organism.
PEA – Phenylethyl alcohol – selects for gram positive cocci (obligate anaerobes)
Differential – compound added to media to differentiate organisms based on color.
ChromAgar = chromogenic substrates
Differential and Selective = MacConkey agar selects for gram negative bacilli and differentiates lactose fermenters.
Tubes of broth are used to detect low#’s of bacteria that might not grow on agar media – sterile body fluids
Catalase Enzyme Reaction
Hydrogen Peroxide plus bacteria
Positive if you see bubbles
Avoid blood agar – blood has innate catalase activity
Clostridium continued
Clostridium tetani – tennis racket looking organism due to spore at the end. Toxin enters due to penetrating skin injury.
C. septicum – organism in the blood associated with cancer.
C. difficile – Produces enterotoxin A and Cytotoxin B, Glutamate dehydrogenase antigen
Can detect B with cell culture and
A and B with EIA or latex agglutination –
cause of antibiotic associated colitis – post antibiotic therapy
Campylobacter
Small curved bacilli – shaped like sea gull wings
C. jejuni – agent of diarrhea
Related to undercooked poultry ingestion
requires selective media containing antibiotics -Skirrow’s blood agar
42*C in microaerophilic atmosphere
Significant % Guillain barre syndrome as sequelae
Only Campylobacter spp with hippurate hydrolysis
C fetus – blood culture pathogen in the immune suppressed host
C. jejuni – grows at 37*C and 42*C
C. fetus - grows at 37*C and 25*C
Other Corynebacterium spp
Corynebacterium jeikeium –
patients with plastic catheters and indwelling devices,
normal skin flora (lipophilic)
Very resistant to most antibiotics
Susceptible to vancomycin and tetracycline
Corynebacterium urealyticum –
Rapidly urease positive diphtheroid found in urine cultures
alkaline encrusted cystitis
Moraxella catarrhalis
Gram negatibve dipplococci
Pneumonia, eye, sinus, otitis media
Direct gram stain of sputum can be helpful in diagnosing pneumonia
Polys and gram negative diplococci
Hockey puck colony oxidase positive
DN’ase enzyme positive
Resistant to ampicillin by beta lactamase enzyme production
Shigella
Diarrhea, +/-vomiting, fluid loss, blood in stool
Human to human transmission
Low #’s of organisms to make you ill – 10 – 100 org
Non motile and No H2S produced (differ from Salmonella)
Non lactose fermenter
4 species based on somatic antigen
S. boydii Group C
S. dysenteriae Group A
S. flexneri Group B
S. sonnei Group D
Salmonella typhi
Typhoid fever – sepsis and fever
Vi capsular antigen and D somatic antigen
Can boil solution of organism for 15 minutes to destroy the VI and expose the somatic D antigen
Moustache of H2S in the TSI tube
Carrier state in gallbladder
Alpha hemolytic Streptococcus - The anginosis group
The anginosis group
S. anginosus S. constellatus S. intermedius
Human normal flora in mouth
More virulent than “normal” viridans Strep perhaps due to capsule
Cause deep tissue abscesses, bacteremia, endocarditis, intra abdominal infections…
Variable susceptibilities
Brucella
Very small gram negative coccobacilli
Castaneda biphasic blood culture historically used for culture – hold 14-21 day – now use BACTEC automated system with 5 days of incubation
Specimens: blood and bone marrow
Disease – Fever of unknown origin, joint pain
Species related to animal spp exposure
B. abortus – raw cow milk
B. melitensis – raw goat milk, feta cheese
B. suis – pigs B. canis - dogs
Bacterial Stains
- Gram stain –
Gram negative (red) and positive (blue) – describe morphology
— Crystal violet – primary stain
— Gram’s iodine – mordant -
– Acetone/Alcohol – decolorizer*
— Safranin – counterstain
How to judge quality of a gram stain- are the polys blue? If so, slide is under-decolorized.
Are the polys washed out? If so, the slide is overdecolorized
Poor quality stains must be repeated
Yersinia enterocolitica
Cause of diarrhea
Major reservoir – swine
Human usually infected by non pasteurized milk
Septicemia in iron overload syndromes
Mesenteric adenitis – RLQ pain mimics apy
Grows well at 4*C (like Listeria)
CIN agar (Cefsulodin-irgasan-novobiocin)
Has been associated with banked blood
infections – Transfusion related infection
Bacillus species
Gram + bacillus
Bacillus species –
boxcar shaped gram positive rods
catalase enzyme +
spores
B. Anthracis cause of Anthrax
Infection of herbivores
bioterrorism - due to highly resistant spores easily disseminated into the environment
Infections – skin, pulmonary and GI
black eschar skin lesions
Culture:
medusa head colonies on BAP, non-hemolytic, non-motile, Pen SS
B. cereus – food poisoning rapid onset (1 – 6 hr)
(cereulide = emetic exotoxin)
Fried rice, beta hemolytic and motile
Criteria for rejected sputum
Expectorated sputum specimens are rejected for bacterial culture based on this criteria:
Cells observed on 10X objective (low power field)
>= 25 epithelial cells /field
Sputum is judged to be spit / not sputum
This is not an acceptable specimen for bacterial culture
Can accept for AFB , fungus, etc.
Coagulase negative Staph
@ 15 species in humans
Staph epidermidis –
major skin normal flora,
major cause of subacute bacterial endocarditis.
Pathogenicity from cell adhesion factors forming biofilms on biologics and plastic
Staph saprophyticus –
urinary tract infections in the child bearing age female,
this species adheres in greater #’s to epithelial cells than other SCNG.
Novobiocin resistant by KB disk test
Staph hemolyticus –
line related sepsis,
this CNS is hemolytic on blood agar, do not confuse with Staph aureus (which is coagulase positive)
Actinomyces
Branching gram positive bacilli that do not form spores, capable of forming sulfur granules in tissue – often found on normal tonsil
Actinomyces israelii – associated with oral, thoracic, and abdominal infections, IUD infections.
Bread crumb colonies in broth, molar tooth colony on agar plates.
Penicillin susceptible.
Indole positive
E. coli
Klebsiella oxytoca (pneumoniiae is negative)
Citrobacter koseri (freundii is negative)
Plesiomonas shigelloides
most Aeromonas spp
Proteus vulgaris
Pasteurella spp
Cardiobacterium spp.