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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 05 1996, 1275-1276, Vol 34, No. 5
Copyright © 1996 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Misidentification of toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae as a Corynebacterium species with low virulence in a child with endocarditis

RA Pennie, AS Malik and L Wilcox
McMaster University School of Medicine, McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

A 6-year-old boy presented to a university hospital in Malaysia with infective endocarditis complicating cyanotic congenital heart disease. Blood cultures showed a gram-positive, aerobic, coryneform-like bacillus identified by the hospital laboratory as Corynebacterium xerosis, but a reference laboratory identified the organism as a toxigenic strain of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The two laboratories concurred on all biochemical test results except for sucrose fermentation.

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