DISPATCHES
We report a case of transfusion-associated bacteremia caused by Psychrobacter arenosus. This psychrotolerant bacterium was previously isolated in 2004 from coastal sea ice and sediments in the Sea of Japan, but not from humans. P. arenosus should be considered a psychrotolerant bacterial species tha...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.308.6492 http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/7/pdfs/12-1599.pdf |
| Summary: | We report a case of transfusion-associated bacteremia caused by Psychrobacter arenosus. This psychrotolerant bacterium was previously isolated in 2004 from coastal sea ice and sediments in the Sea of Japan, but not from humans. P. arenosus should be considered a psychrotolerant bacterial species that can cause transfusion-transmitted bacterial infections. Bacteria are the leading cause of transfusion-transmitted infections (1). Contamination occurs more frequently in platelet concentrates than in erythrocyte units, especially because of different storage conditions (20°C–24°C for platelet concentrates vs. 1°C–6°C for erythrocyte units). However, several bacterial species are able to grow at 4°C (1–3). We report a case of transfusion-transmitted bacterial infection caused by Psychrobacter arenosus, an environmental psychrotolerant and halotolerant bacterium. The Patient In October 2009, a 58-year-old man was admitted to Grenoble University Hospital (Grenoble, France) for a blood transfusion because of severe anemia. Idiopathic medullary aplasia had been diagnosed in 1997, and he had had grade 3 myelofibrosis since 2006. He had been receiving palliative care since November 2007, and received transfusions of erythrocyte units every 3 weeks. On October 27, 2009, he received 3 erythrocyte units (at 8:30 am, 10:30 am, and 12:15 pm). While receiving the third unit, he became febrile (temperature of 38°C that |
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