Nocardiosis is an infectious disease caused by an aerobic Gram-positive bacillus belonging to the Actinomycetales family that is broadly distributed in soil. Like other bacilli, Nocardia species cause disease mainly in immunocompromised patients, such as renal transplant recipients and those with diabetes mellitus [1–3]. Skin and lung are the usual sites of primary infection [4]. The lungs are ...

Studies of Mycobacterium leprae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Nocardia caviae in comparison with each other and with other Mycobacterium and Nocardia species were performed on the basis of antigen 21 intramolecular heterogeneity. Three different antisera were used: rabbit anti-Mycobacterium smegmatis antiserum, rabbit anti-Nocardia asteroides antiserum, and a lepromatous serum pool. With refe...

Most activated sludge treatment plants suffer from the presence of foams on the surfaces of their aeration reactors. These are often stabilized by hydrophobic mycolic acid-synthesizing actinobacterial species. A polyvalent Siphoviridae phage, GTE7, which lysed several Gordonia and Nocardia species, is described here. Its genome has a modular structure similar to that described for Rhodococcus p...

Primary cutaneous infections with Nocardia asteroides are rare and have been reported in immunocompromised patients. Herein, we report a case of primary cutaneous Nocardia asteroides mycetoma of the skin in an immunocompetent individual. The infection was treated successfully with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Because a prolonged incubation time is required for the cultures and since additiona...

We here show adequate species identification for bacterial isolates of the genus Nocardia spp. through VITEK mass spectrometry. Application of a specific sample preparation method in combination with a robust matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) database leads to 94% accurate identification to the species level on a set of 164 isolates. The...

Pulmonary nocardiosis is a severe and uncommon opportunistic infection caused by Nocardia species. We present a patient with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia who was receiving long-term immunosuppressive therapy, whose treatment course was complicated by cutaneous and pulmonary nocardiosis. Tissue cultures confirmed Nocardia brasiliensis. Nocardiosis should be a diagnostic consideration for pat...

By definition, a brain abscess is an intraparenchymal collection of pus. Nocardia shows to have a special tropism for the neural tissue. Solitary abscess represents the most common manifestation in the central nervous system, accounting for 1%-2% of all cerebral abscesses. In this report, we present a case of primary multiple brain abscesses due to Nocardia farcinica in an immune competent pati...

The effectiveness of 13 antimicrobial agents against 51 clinical isolates of Nocardia was determined with use of agar dilutions and disk diffusion method. Amikacin inhibited less than 90% of isolates and, like the other aminoglycosides, showed good correlation between minimal inhibitory concentrations and sizes of zones of inhibition around the disks. Both sulfisoxazole and trimethoprim-sulfame...

Nocardiosis is an uncommon infection caused by Nocardia species, a group of aerobic actinomycetes. Disease in humans is rare and often affects patients with underlying immune compromise. Acquisition of this organism is usually via the respiratory tract, but direct inoculation into the skin is possible, usually in the setting of trauma. We report an encounter of a previously healthy man, with ce...

During 2 years, from March 1987 to April 1989 ,600 samples of soil and plant were collected from different cities of northern provinces of Iran. Out of the six hundred samples 58 Actinomycetes, 9 Pseudallescheria boydii, 10 Sporothrix schenckii, and 4 Sporothrix schenckii-like fungi were isolated as the following: Streptomyces griseus from 31 samples (38.27%), Nocardia asteroides from 8 samples...