A Rare Case of Corynebacterium propinquum Endocarditis in a Native Valve

Abstract

We report a case of a 63-year-old male who presented with complaints of 9 days of fevers up to 38.3 C, chills and rigors, and headache of 3 - 4 days duration. He also noticed that the entire right half of his visual field was obscured. MRI of the brain revealed a 4 cm acute infarction involving the calcarine cortex of the left occipital lobe. Blood cultures grew <i>Corynebacterium propinquum</i>. A trans-esophageal echocardiogram revealed oscillating echodensities on the aortic valve, mitral valve, and posterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve, concerning for infective endocarditis. Repeat bubble study was consistent with a small patent foramen ovale. To the best of our knowledge, there have only been four reported cases of infection by this organism, with just two of them being infective endocarditis. There are no established guidelines for therapy. We used an Etest with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) reported to guide therapy. The patient was successfully treated with 6 weeks of intravenous ceftriaxone.




J Med Cases. 2017;8(4):137-140
doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2795w