Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum in eye culture

[Micro.Pete]

Hi all,

 

I have a question regarding acterial isolate. Several days ago we recieved a sawb from a patient with an eye infection. After a period of 24h incubation on Chocolate and TSBA agar I have noticed stange looking colonies. The colonies were small, white and creamy and resembeled coagulase negative Staphylococci (e.g; S. epidermidis), which were also present on the agars. So I Gram-stained the bacteria and in parallel prepared a sample for Maldi-tof MS. The Gram staining revealed Corynebacterium spp., and the MS analysis was Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum.

My question is whether this bacterium is known to cause eye infections, or is it a part of the normal flora (as other non-Corynebacterium diphteria species are).

 

Thanks,

 

[CharonY]

It is commonly found in the respiratory tract AFAIK. They are typically not found in eyes (though I guess in immunocompromised patients all bets are off). Depending on the how the samples were processed there is also the possibility of cross-contamination.