UNASSIGNED: Gordonia terrae is an opportunistic pathogen that rarely causes clinical infections. Here, we first report a case of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis caused by Gordonia terrea.
UNASSIGNED: A 71-year-old male patient was diagnosed with spontaneous bacteria peritonitis secondary to hepatitis C cirrhosis. The result of bacterial culture in ascites was positive, and the pathogenic bacteria was preliminarily identified as the Gordonia genus by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. After 16S rRNA sequencing analysis, it was determined to be the Gordonia terrea. Symptoms relieved after treatment with ceftazidime.
UNASSIGNED: This case indicates that the clinical infections caused by Gordonia terrea should be brought to the forefront. Accurate and rapid bacterial identification results are highly beneficial to the diagnosis and therapeutic regime.

Human infection caused by bacteria of the Edwardsiella genus is rare and most often presents with gastroenteritis that rarely requires antibiotics. Our case report describes a medically complex patient with chronic steroid use contributing to an immunocompromised state, who presented with fever and abdominal pain. The patient was later found to have Edwardsiella tarda (E. tarda) bacteremia and underwent paracentesis confirming E. tarda bacterial peritonitis requiring a prolonged antibiotic course. This case report aims to illustrate the presentation, diagnosis, and management of an uncommon infection that can have severe complications especially among immunocompromised patients.

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous fungal peritonitis (SFP) and fungiascites is less well-recognized and described in patients with liver cirrhosis. The aims of this study were to determine the clinical characteristics, prognosis, and risk factors of cirrhotic patients with SFP/fungiascites and to improve early differential diagnosis with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP).
METHODS: This was a retrospective case-control study of 54 cases of spontaneous peritonitis in cirrhotic patients (52 SFP and 2 fungiascites) with fungus-positive ascitic culture. Fifty-four SBP cirrhotic patients with bacteria-positive ascitic culture were randomly enrolled as a control group. A nomogram was developed for the early differential diagnosis of SFP and fungiascites.
RESULTS: Hospital-acquired infection was the main cause of SFP/fungiascites. Of the 54 SFP/fungiascites patients, 31 (57.41%) patients carried on with the antifungal treatment, which seemed to improve short-term (30-days) mortality but not long-term mortality. Septic shock and HCC were independent predictors of high 30-day mortality in SFP/fungiascites patients. We constructed a predictive nomogram model that included AKI/HRS, fever, (1,3)-β-D-glucan, and hospital-acquired infection markers for early differential diagnosis of SFP/fungiascites in cirrhotic patients with ascites from SBP, and the diagnostic performance was favorable, with an AUC of 0.930 (95% CI: 0.874-0.985).
CONCLUSIONS: SFP/fungiascites was associated with high mortality. The nomogram established in this article is a useful tool for identifying SFP/fungiascites in SBP patients early. For patients with strongly suspected or confirmed SFP/fungiascites, timely antifungal therapy should be administered.

BACKGROUND: Despite the advance in antibiotics and widespread chest tube drainage, acute empyema still shows a high mortality rate, accounting for 10-25%. We experienced a case of acute empyema caused by A. hydrophila, which is extremely uncommon, and reviewed all previously published articles.
METHODS: A 76-year older man with a medical history of liver cirrhosis (LC) due to chronic hepatitis C and hepatic cell carcinoma was admitted to our institute. Elevated inflammatory reaction and effusions on chest CT were seen, and he was suspected of having acute empyema. Although an empiric antibiotic therapy of meropenem with chest tube drainage was performed as an initial treatment, he died within 8 hours of admission. Postmortem, both blood and left pleural fluid cultures yielded Aeromonas hydrophila. The final diagnosis was acute empyema caused by A. hydrophila. We reviewed previously reported empyema caused by Aeromonas species cases (4 A. hydrophila, and 1 A. veronii) in 4 previous reports written in English, including ours. Of 5, all were male, and the mean age was 52 years (range 27-76 years). All patients had LC due to alcohol or viral infections. As for antibiotics initially prescribed, third-generation cephalosporins were most frequently used in 3/5 (60%). Thoracentesis was performed in all patients (100%). As for prognosis, 2 (40%) survived, and 3 (60%) died.
CONCLUSIONS: Physicians should be aware of the possibility of acute empyema caused by A. hydrophila among patients with chronic hepatic disease.

Glucocorticoids are used as a first-line treatment for severe alcoholic hepatitis, and albumin reduces both the number of hospitalizations and mortality in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. However, for acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), there is no definitive evidence that glucocorticoid therapy is beneficial. In this case report, we describe a male patient who developed into ACLF based on alcoholic cirrhosis, whose symptoms and clinical indicators continued to deteriorate after initial symptomatic treatment. The patient\'s condition gradually improved after low-dose glucocorticoid therapy, and long-term albumin supplementation resulted in a satisfactory outcome.

Empirical antibiotic therapy in patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is common as pathogen(s) are identified in only 5%-20% patients using conventional culture-based techniques. Metagenome next-generation sequencing (mNGS) test is a promising approach for the diagnosis of infectious disease. The clinical application of mNGS for infected ascites in cirrhotic patients is rarely reported. Here, we describe three cases to preliminarily explore the potential role of mNGS for microbiological diagnosis of ascites infection in an exploratory manner. The clinical performance of ascites mNGS in cirrhotic patients remains to be further evaluated.

Flood syndrome is caused by spontaneous rupture of an umbilical hernia in a patient with tense, long-standing ascites. It is a rare complication of hepatic cirrhosis and has a high mortality rate. Flood syndrome is so named because a rush of ascitic fluid often follows the spontaneous umbilical hernia rupture. We present a case of a 39-year-old male patient with a history of alcoholic liver cirrhosis and recurrent ascites who underwent multiple abdominal paracentesis prior to developing an umbilical hernia that eventually ruptured, causing flood syndrome. The authors would like to discuss flood syndrome with a focus on management options.

BACKGROUND: Streptococcus pseudoporcinus (S. pseudoporcinus) was first identified in 2006. It cross-reacts with Lancefield group B antigen agglutination reagents and has been misidentified as S. agalactiae. Sites of S. pseudoporcinus isolation include the female genitourinary tract, urine, wounds, and dairy products. The prevalence of vaginal colonization is reportedly between 1 and 5.4%. Two uneventful cases of soft tissue infection caused by S. pseudoporcinus were reported in the past. However, since late 2019, six cases of invasive S. pseudoporcinus infections have emerged in the literature, one of which was fatal.
METHODS: We describe a fatal case of a Caucasian male with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis associated with bacteremia due to a multidrug-resistant S. pseudoporcinus strain in a patient with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Despite the patient\'s good general condition and stable blood test results when he had visited the outpatient clinic for large-volume paracentesis a few days before admission, this time he presented to the emergency department with a rapidly worsening clinical condition and with laboratory features consistent with multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome, and succumbed within a short period.
CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to what was thought until recently, multidrug-resistant S. pseudoporcinus may cause invasive, disseminated, fatal disease in humans. According to current limited data, vancomycin, linezolid, daptomycin, levofloxacin, clindamycin, and tetracycline seem to be the most effective antimicrobial agents against multidrug-resistant strains, and should be the empirical choice in cases of disseminated S. pseudoporcinus infection until laboratory antimicrobial susceptibility results are available. Improvements and new approaches for bacterial identification in routine clinical microbiology laboratories may reveal the real spectrum of S. pseudoporcinus infections in humans, which is currently believed to be underestimated. SS. pseudoporcinus could emerge as a serious medical problem in the near future, similar to other β-hemolytic streptococci.

Primary spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a rare cause of acute abdomen in previously healthy patients, even more unusually caused by a group A Streptococcus (GAS) (also known as Streptococcus pyogenes) infection. We report a young, otherwise healthy female who presented with generalized abdominal pain that was initially managed conservatively as gastroenteritis, with a computed tomography (CT) scan showing a ruptured corpus luteal cyst. Upon subsequent readmission with worsened pain and symptoms, a repeat CT scan showed worsened free fluid with signs of peritonitis. A diagnostic laparoscopy confirmed primary peritonitis with an unknown infection source and causative pathology, as the appendix, ovaries and bowels were healthy-looking. Fluid cultures returned positive for GAS Pyogenes, while blood and urine cultures were negative. The discussion reviews the challenges in diagnosis and treatment of GAS primary peritonitis, highlighting the need for clinical suspicion, early diagnosis via laparoscopy or laparotomy and prompt antibiotic therapy as the current standard for treatment.

Infection is an important complication of childhood nephrotic syndrome (NS) and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a frequently encountered one. We present a 7-year-old boy with NS who had decreased urine output, generalized body swelling, and abdominal pain. Urine analysis showed proteinuria of 50 mg/m 2 /d. Ascitic tap showed total leukocyte count of 100 cells/mm 3 , sugar of 67 mg/dL, and protein of 1.1 g/dL. Gram stain revealed gram-negative bacilli with pus cells and culture grown Leclercia adecarboxylata (LAD). LAD was identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) with an identification score of 2.0. The organism showed good susceptibility to common antibiotics. The boy had no direct contact with livestock and the source of infection remains speculative. Devitalized skin because of massive edema seems to be the most plausible site of entry for the organism. Our patient was started on ceftriaxone and improved. LAD is a rare opportunistic pathogen, which belongs to Enterobacteriaceae and usually causes soft tissue infections. As far as we know, this is the first case where it has caused peritonitis in a child with NS. We also reviewed other pediatric cases.