HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lee, C.-H. Articles by Liu, J.-W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lee, C.-H. Articles by Liu, J.-W. Agricola Articles by Lee, C.-H. Articles by Liu, J.-W.

Underdiagnosis of urinary tract infection caused by Methylobacterium species with current standard processing of urine culture and its clinical implications

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine¹ and Hospital Infection Control Unit², Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, Taiwan, ROC

Correspondence Jien-Wei Liu 88b0{at}adm.cgmh.org.tw

Received August 20, 2003
Accepted April 13, 2004

Methylobacterium species are environmental opportunistic bacteria, and urinary tract infection (UTI) caused by these pathogens has not yet been documented. Four cases of UTI with Methylobacterium bacteraemia in immunocompetent female patients are reported. Their urine cultures, processed according to standard procedures (i.e. incubation at 35 °C in ambient air for 24 h before incubation at room temperature for a further 24 h), were either negative or positive for Escherichia coli. Specially designed experiments indicated that colonies of Methylobacterium species were visualized on blood agar only after incubation at 35 °C for at least 40 h, and growth was completely suppressed when concurrently incubated with much smaller inocula of E. coli. The isolates were variably susceptible to cephalosporins, but 100 % susceptible to aminoglycosides. This study suggests an underdiagnosis of UTI caused by Methylobacterium species when the standard procedure of processing urine cultures is used, and implies that administration of aminoglycosides is important when treatment of UTIs with cephalosporin fails.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I.-K. Lee, W.-C. Yang, and J.-W. Liu Scrotal Tuberculosis in Adult Patients: A 10-Year Clinical Experience Am J Trop Med Hyg, October 1, 2007; 77(4): 714 - 718. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				X. Wang, F. Sahr, T. Xue, and B. Sun Methylobacterium salsuginis sp. nov., isolated from seawater Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, August 1, 2007; 57(8): 1699 - 1703. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. Gallego, M. T. Garcia, and A. Ventosa Methylobacterium isbiliense sp. nov., isolated from the drinking water system of Sevilla, Spain Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, November 1, 2005; 55(6): 2333 - 2337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]