Late infections with Actinomyces israelii have been described for prosthetic hip joints but not in association with intravenous drug use. We present a case of a 43-year-old intravenous drug user who developed A. israelii infection in connection with a hip prosthesis 11 years after implantation, and we review four previously reported cases of Actinomyces prosthetic joint infections.

BACKGROUND We present a case of Actinomyces israelii causing vulvar mass suspicious for malignancy in a postmenopausal woman. CASE A 60 year-old woman presented due to a firm, nonmobile, 10 cm vulvar mass, which had been rapidly enlarging for 5 months. The mass was painful, with localized pruritus and sinus tracts oozing of serosanguinous fluid. Biopsy and cultures revealed a ruptured epiderm...

Actinomyces israelii is the most common cause of human actinomycosis, a chronic granulomatous infection. Periapical actinomycosis involving A. israelii has been identified as an important cause of failure of conventional endodontic treatment. Structures on the bacterial cell surface have been implicated in the pathogenicity of Actinomyces. In this study the ultrastructure of A. israelii was inv...

King, Sylvia (Hektoen Institute, Chicago, Ill.) and Esther Meyer. Gel diffusion technique in antigen-antibody reactions of Actinomyces species and "anaerobic diphtheroids." J. Bacteriol. 85:186-190. 1963.-The Ouchterlony agar gel diffusion test was used to establish antigenic patterns produced by Actinomyces israelii, A. bovis, and A. naeslundii, as compared with those of "anaerobic diphtheroid...

Primary sternal osteomyelitis is a rare disease. Common infectious organisms causing primary sternal osteomyelitis include Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Actinomyces species are common saprophytes of the oral cavity, but there have been few reports in the literature of primary sternal osteomyelitis caused by Actinomyces species. We describe a case of primary sternal osteomyel...

Actinomyces israelii (a gram-positive, branching, anaerobic or microaerophilic bacterium) infects 1.6-11.6% of IUD users worldwide. Physicians must decide whether to treat A. israelii infection with antibiotics, remove the IUD, or refer the patient to the family planning clinic. Culture techniques tend to be inadequate, so many US health professionals use a microscope to identify A. israelii ...

This study was undertaken to determine the antigenic relationships between serotypes of Actinomyces israelii with fluorescent-antibody (FA) procedures. In addition, the antigenic relationships between A. israelii and other members of the genus Actinomyces were studied by the same methods. Seven FA conjugates were used to determine the serological characteristics of 28 isolates believed to repre...

Actinomyces israelii is an uncommon cause of upper genital tract infection. This gram-positive anaerobe is occasionally noted on the Papanicolau smear of asymptomatic patients utilizing the intrauterine device. In this case, a 57-year-old woman presented with postmenopausal vaginal bleeding. A Pap smear showed filamentous microorganisms consistent with Actinomyces israelii (A). Despite a negati...

Open-lung biopsy in a child with chronic pneumonia revealed branched gram-positive acid-fast organisms, later identified as Actinomyces israelii. Like Nocardia asteroides, A israelii can be acid fast by the commonly used Putt stain. The pneumonia was cured with 12 weeks of penicillin treatment.

For direct observation of microaerophilic actinomycetes by fluorescent antibody, a procedure was developed in which pepsin treatment and rhodamine conjugate of normal serum were used to reduce nonspecific staining in cervicovaginal smears. Actinomyces israelii, Actinomyces naeslundii, and Arachnia propionica were observed in cervicovaginal smears from women who did use and who did not use an in...