[A Case of Meningitis Caused by Globicatella sanguinis in a Patient with a Lumbo-peritoneal Shunt].

Globicatella sanguinis is catalase-negative, alpha-hemolytic, nonmotile, facultative anaerobic grampositive cocci, identified as a new species in 1992. Since the colony morphology in blood agar and microscopic appearance resembles streptococci, it is thought that some of the isolates previously identified in the Streptococcus viridans group were G.sanguinis species. G.sanguinis has been isolated from various clinical specimens, its species identification and antibiotic susceptibility have been tested since the year it was identified. Clinical specimens in which it is isolated include various mucosal surfaces, blood, urine, wound and cerebrospinal fluid. In this report, considering also the literature information, a case of G.sanguinis which is thought to cause meningitis was presented. Our case is a 39-year-old female patient with a lumboperitoneal shunt. The patient was admitted to the neurosurgery clinic with a headache and vision loss and was hospitalized in the service with a pre-diagnosis of pseudotumor cerebri. Neurological examination revealed no pathological findings. Eye examination revealed mild papillary edema, local retinal hemorrhage, and bilateral expansion in retinal vascularization. There was no pathologic findings in the brain magnetic resonance imaging. The colonies resembling alpha hemolytic streptococci were isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid taken upon the development of neck stiffness, fever, and tachycardia on the 10th day of hospitalization of the lumbo-peritoneal shunt administered patient. The identification of the isolate was determined in Bruker IVD MALDI Biotyper 2.3 (Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Bremen, Germany), available in our laboratory and it was identified as G.sanguinis (KJ680157.1) with a score of > 2. The definite identification of the isolate at the species level was made by 16S rDNA sequence analysis and it was determined that the bacterium was G.sanguinis with 100% similarity and coverage. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for some of the antibiotics was determined by the agar gradient method. The MIC values were found as; linezolid 0.50 µg/ml, vancomycin 0.75 µg/ ml, imipenem 0.75 µg/ml, meropenem 3 µg/ml, penicillin G 6 µg/ml and cefotaxime > 32 µg/ml. It is known that these rare isolates can be isolated in greater numbers along with the introduction of MALDITOF MS-based devices in many laboratories. Following greater numbers of isolation of this rare species of bacteria, our knowledge about its clinical significance, placement in the flora and antibiotic susceptibility will also be expanded.