Culture on Selective Media and Amplicon-Based Sequencing of 16S rRNA from Spontaneous Brain Abscess—the View from the Diagnostic Laboratory
Camilla Andersen, Bo Bergholt, Winnie Ridderberg, Niels Nørskov‐Lauritsen
Abstract
Polymicrobial brain abscess is a challenge to the clinical microbiology laboratory due to the aggregative nature of the dental and oral microbiota. Because polymicrobial infections may escape detection by conventional culture methods, directed therapy toward a single detected bacterium is problematic. Amplicon-based sequencing provides important clues to these infections, but only cultured microorganisms can be fully characterized, subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and formally named. By use of specific selective culture plates, we successfully isolated bacteria of the Fusobacterium nucleatum group, and these bacteria rose to the same prominence as the widely recognized pathogen, the Streptococcus anginosus group. Named and unnamed members of the Fusobacterium nucleatum group must be further investigated to gain insight into a rare but grave disease.