Actinomyces
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Bacteria - Gram Positive
- Staph aureus: Overview
- Staph aureus: Presentation
- Methicillin-Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA)
- Staph saprophyticus
- Strep pneumoniae: Overview
- Strep pneumoniae: Presentation
- Strep viridans
- Strep pyogenes: Overview
- Strep pyogenes: Presentation
- Strep agalactiae
- Strep bovis
- Enterococcus
- Bacillus anthracis
- Bacillus cereus
- Clostridium tetani
- Clostridium perfringens
- Clostridium botulinum
- Clostridium difficile
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae
- Listeria monocytogenes
- Nocardia
- Actinomyces
Actinomyces spp.
- Characteristics
- Gram + rod in branching filaments
- Forms long, branching filaments resembling fungi
- Note: Nocardia is also a gram + filamentous rod
- Produces yellow granules (“sulfur granules”)
- Yellow bacterial aggregates bound together by proteins
- Do not actually contain sulfur; named due to sulfur-like yellow color
- Anaerobic
- Contrast vs. Nocardia, which is aerobic
- Does not stain acid-fast
- Contrast vs. Nocardia, which stains acid-fast
- Gram + rod in branching filaments
- Transmission
- Infections usually follow dental work or oral trauma
- Found in normal oral, reproductive, and GI flora
- Infections usually follow dental work or oral trauma
- Presentation
- Oral/facial abscesses
- Presents as slow-growing firm abscesses in face/neck
- Contrast vs. Nocardia, which usually presents with pulmonary infections
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- IUDs
- Oral/facial abscesses
- Treatment
- Penicillin
- Tetracyclines may be used in patients with penicillin allergy
- Surgical debridement
- Penicillin