Case Description
A 60 year old Hispanic male with a past medical history significant for chronic pancreatitis, hypertension and cirrhosis was admitted with decompensated cirrhosis. He underwent paracentesis for ascites and subsequently developed a hematoma as a complication of the procedure which required embolization. During his 12-day long hospital stay, he also developed hypoxia due to volume overload that improved with diuresis. A Foley catheter was placed during his hospital stay which was removed prior to discharge. Weeks later, at a follow up appointment with urology, he complained of dysuria, very little urine during voiding and the sensation of incomplete bladder emptying. A clean catch urine culture was performed and grew >100,000 colonies of Escherichia coli. As shown in Table 1, the isolate was resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics including penicillins, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, one aminoglycoside (Tobramycin), Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole, aztreonam and carbapenems (Ertapenem/Meropenem) making this isolate multi-drug resistant (MDR). Because of the resistance profile to the carbapenems, molecular testing for carbapenemase genes was performed and the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) gene was detected. The patient was treated with nitrofurantoin for his symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI).
Discussion
Escherichia coli is a gram negative, motile bacillus that is a normal constituent of the gastrointestinal tract and is one of the most common causes of uncomplicated UTI. Antimicrobial susceptibilities are nearly always performed because the isolates of E. coli can vary in resistance. E. coli do not have any intrinsic resistance to antibiotics other than penicillin; however, they can acquire resistance through numerous mechanisms including structural mutations and plasmid-borne genes that encode enzymes to various classes of antibiotics. One such plasmid-encoded enzyme is the NDM, which was identified in our patient’s isolate. Its resistance is the result of bacterial synthesis of a carbapenemase that deactivates carbapenems by breaking down the beta-lactam ring.1 In the United States, K. pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) is the most common, but other types carbapenemase enzymes have also been reported.1,2 NDM is uncommonly isolated in E. coli; it is more often identified in other gram negative bacteria including MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii complex, which can cause, among other things, devastating nosocomial infections within a healthcare setting. Because these enzymes are on mobile elements, a patient can be colonized with one bacterial strain that carries the plasmid with the carbapenemase on it and transfer a copy of that plasmid to another bacterial strain, thereby conferring new carbapenem resistance to the new bacterium (e.g., P. aeruginosa with the NDM on a plasmid shares that plasmid with an E. coli). Carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are of great importance in healthcare. Carbapenem resistance mediated by enzyme activity (e.g., KPC, NDM, OXA-48, etc), typically confers resistance to all beta lactams. Interestingly, NDM enzymes typically do not destroy aztreonam, a monobactam;3 however, it is common for bacteria to have multiple resistance genes, so NDM carrying strains can be resistant to aztreonam. Although these CRE isolates can cause significant morbidity and mortality when found in clinical samples including sputum or blood, luckily for our patient, he had an uncomplicated UTI and nitrofurantoin was susceptible.
-Limin Yang is a PGY-1 resident in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at University of Texas Southwestern. She has varied interests including anatomic pathology specialties.
-Dominick Cavuoti is a professor of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at UT Southwestern and active faculty on both Microbiology and Cytology services.
-Clare McCormick-Baw, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Microbiology at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. She has a passion for teaching about laboratory medicine in general and the best uses of the microbiology lab in particular.
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