Medically Relevant Bacteria - Gram Positives - SRS Flashcards
What stain do gram positives take up?
Crystal violet is taken up by the peptidoglycan layer in the bacterial cell wall during a gram staining. This stains purple.
Streptococci are gram + cocci that are typically found in chains and are non-motile facultative or obligate anaerobes.
Name the five main groups of streptococci.
- Group A = S. pyogenes
- Group B = S. agalactiae
- Group D
- S. pneumoniae
- S. viridians
How does streptococci respond to the catalase test?
Negative
What is the Lancefield grouping based on?
Serology of cell wall C carbohydrate (18 groups)
What are the virulence factors of the streptococci?
•M proteins in S. pyogenes resist phagocytosis
•Lipoteichoic acids allow epithelial cell attachment
•Encapsulated - S. pneumoniae, S pyogenes & S. agalactiae
•Hyaluronic acid capsule - S. pyogenes
•Streptolysins, NADase, hyaluronidase, streptokinase, DNAses, erythrogenic exotoxin in S. pyogenes (causes scarlet fever rash), toxic shock syndrome toxin, pyrogenic exotoxin B (erysipelas)
Group A strep, S. pyogenes has the ability to perform beta hemolysis. What is this the number one cause of?
What can happen after the intial infection?
What are a few other things it can do?
- #1 cause of bacterial pharyngitis and tonsillitis, sinusitis, otitis, arthritis, osteomyelitis, impetigo, and cellulitis.
- Can later get rheumatic fever, rheumatic valvular disease and post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis.
- Also causes scarlet fever (toxin) and can cause pneumonia, bacteremia necrotizing fasciitis, & toxic shock syndrome (toxin).
What is group B strep the leading cause of?
neonatal septicemia, meningitis & pneumonia
What type of hemolysis does group D strep cause?
What are common infections associated with it?
ȣ or α hemolysis-urinary tract infections and endocarditis
- S. pneumoniae* is capable of α hemolysis, and is the number one cause of what conditions in…
1. adults
2. children
Adults
- bacterial pneumonia (virulence via capsule)
- Meningitis
Children
- Otitis Media
S. viridans is capable of α hemolysis and is microaerophillic, what are two things it can cause?
In what situations can this be present?
- Dental caries
- subacute endocarditis
Can be present in aspiration pneumonias and abcesses
What is the Dx criteria for streptococci?
- culture, S. pneumoniae is optochin sensitive (differentiates from α hemolytic S. viridans)
What type of hemolysis is shown on each side of the photo?
What could these cultures be?
Left: Alpha-hemolysis, S. viridans or pneumoniae
Right: Beta-hemolytic, S. pyogenes or agalactiae
What component of S. pyogenes are the antibodies targeted against that cause the problems in rheumatic fever and rheumatic valvular disease?
The M component
What is the bacteria shown here?
What is the classical description (in case he doesn’t grant us the microscopy)?
Why the clear space around them?
S. pneumoniae
Elongated pairs, lancet shaped diplococci
Apparently the clear space is associated with the capsule.
Which streptococci causes scarlet fever?
What toxin does it use in doing so?
Group A (S. pyogenes)
erythrogenic exotoxin
Enterococci are gram positive diplococci that form short chains. Previously they were categorized with one of the strep groups. If you see an out of date reference to these as such what strep group will they be referred to as?
Group D
What catalase response do you see in enterococci? What type of hemolysis do they exhibit?
Catalase negative
•ȣ hemolytic (i.e. non-hemolytic)
What are some of the virulence aspects of enterococci we should be aware of?
- Antiphagocytic capsule
- High level of resistance to antibiotics
- high capacity to transmit resistance among selves and to other bacterial populations
Enterococci are intrinsically resistant to what antibiotics?
What else are they resistant to?
•β-lactam antibiotics (penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems) and many aminoglycosides
VRE - vancomycin resistant enterococci
Enterococcus is normal flora in what part of the body?
Intestinal flora
Due to the proximity of the GI and UG portals, cross contamination is relatively common. If enterococcus infects the UG system what kind of fallout can occur?
- UTI
- bacteremia
- bacterial endocarditis
- meningitis
What is an example of how enterococcus can be a problem in the intestine, where it normally is all good?
If a patient has diverticulitis, and one of the pockets is fecally occluded, enterococcus can lead to an abcess.
The organism in this image was taken from a patients intestine, it demonstrates gamma hemolysis, and is non-motile.
What is the organism?
Enterococci
(This might be a bit obvious based on the order of the materials, so I recommend ranking this low initially even if you got it right, so you get another crack at it later)
What organism is depicted here?
How would you describe the arrangement?
Staphylococci
Clustered
What does S. aureus have that is characteristic for it, that the other staphylococci do not?
What does it do?
It is coagulase positive, if exposed to plasma will bind fibrinogen and cause coagulation.
S. aureus commonly infects the skin, what are the major problems that Dr. Gomez highlighted?
- Scalded skin syndrome
- pneumonia
- meningitis
- acute endocarditis
- osteomyelitis
- toxic shock syndrome
- food poisoning
How does S. aureus cause scalded skin syndrome?
Exfoliative A & B toxins cleave desmoglein 1 in skin.
S. aureus has two superantigens associated with it, what are they?
Toxic shock syndrome Toxin (TSST1)
Heat stable enterotoxin
What are the characteristic results that occur in a patient who has a TSST1 producing S. aureus infection?
- Fever
- Erythemetous rash
- hypotension
- shock
- multipe organ failure
- skin desquamanation