Primary infective spondylodiscitis caused by Lactococcus garvieae and a review of human L. garvieae infections

Abstract

We report the first case of primary infective spondylodiscitis due to Lactococcus garvieae, confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, in the absence of concomitant endocarditis in a patient with long-standing gastritis on famotidine. He responded to a 6-week course of ampicillin. The gastrointestinal tract is probably the source of infection.

Fig. 1

T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine showing abnormal contrast enhancement in the posterior aspect of the L3–4 disc and end-plate with surrounding soft tissue and epidural enhancement (arrow)

Fig. 2

Phylogenetic tree showing the relationships of the patient’s isolate to other closely related Lactococcus species. The tree was inferred from 16S rRNA data by the neighbor-joining method using Kimura’s two-parameter correction and was rooted using the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Streptococcus gallinaceus (NR_025453.1). Bootstrap values were calculated from 1,000 trees. The scale bar indicates the estimated number of substitutions per 100 bases. Names and accession numbers are given as cited in the GenBank database