A previously healthy 13-month-old boy developed group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus bacteremia coinciding with numerous eruptive subcutaneous lesions primarily on his extremities. Skin biopsy revealed infectious panniculitis; gram-positive cocci were present within both fat lobules and septa. Molecular genetic analysis of an isolate from the patient's blood revealed an emm type 4 organism disp...

In recent years several groups have used serological methods to demonstrate pneumococcal capsular antigens in sputum. In the present study 123 strains of alpha-hemolytic streptococci (including 97 strains from sputum or pharyngeal specimens) were tested for cross-reactions with a polyvalent antipneumococcal serum (Omniserum). Representatives of the following species were included: Streptococcus...

Severe illness caused by viridans streptococci rarely occurs in immunocompetent hosts. Between December 1990 and May 1991, thousands of patients in the YangZi River Delta area of Jiangsu Province, China, suffered from scarlet fever-like pharyngitis. Fewer cases occurred in subsequent years with the same seasonality. Approximately half of the cases developed complications characteristic of strep...

We evaluated 2401 patients with suspected streptococcal pharyngitis with the Culturette 10-minute Group A Strep ID test during a 6-month period in order to determine its suitability for rapid diagnosis in a busy private office practice. Duplicate throat swabs were obtained for each child, and latex agglutination was performed within 15 minutes. In children with negative latex agglutination resu...

In their study of Streptococcus zymogenes, Sherman, Stark and Mauer (1937) stated that on the basis of a physiological study of a few of Dr. Lancefield's cultures, the Lancefield group D hemolytic streptococcus and Streptococcus zymogenes appeared to be the same. There was nothing essentially new in this suggestion: Lancefield and Hare (1935) had previously stated that the group D streptococci ...

The Rapid Strep system (API System S.A., Montalieu-Vercieu, France) was evaluated, without additional tests, in the identification of 209 streptococci. Organisms included 59 beta-hemolytic, 36 group D, 24 Streptococcus pneumoniae, and 90 viridans group streptococci. The Rapid Strep system correctly identified to species level 69.5% of the beta-hemolytic strains, 100% of the group D strains, non...

1. The concentrations of penicillin G which (a) reduced the net rate of multiplication, (b) exerted a net bactericidal effect, and (c) killed the organisms at a maximal rate, have been defined for a total of 41 strains of alpha- and beta-hemolytic streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus albus, Diplococcus pneumoniae, and the Reiter treponoma. 2. The concentration which killed the...