Mycobacterium conceptionense bloodstream infection in a patient with advanced gastric carcinoma

Abstract

A 65-year-old Japanese male farmer with advanced gastric adenocarcinoma and multiple hepatic metastases was admitted to our hospital. A blood culture was positive on the fifth day, and a gram-positive rod was detected. According to the results of Ziehl-Neelen staining and a cultured colony of this bacterium, we suspected mycobacterial infection. With a suspicion of rapidly growing mycobacterium, we started multidrug therapy with levofloxacin, clarithromycin, and ethambutol and he recovered from the bloodstream infection. Further gene examination (16S rRNA, hsp65, and sodA) revealed an isolate of Mycobacterium conceptionense. M. conceptionense was first identified as a rapidly growing mycobacterium in 2006. Among previous case reports of M. conceptionense infections, bone and soft tissue infections in hosts with a disorder of the normal structure (e.g., surgical sites) were dominant. Herein, we report the characteristics of M. conceptionense infections through this first Japanese case report and a review of the literature.