title: Clinical significance of citrobacter isolates.
abstract: Little is know about the clinical significance of isolating Citrobacter in the clinical laboratory. During a one-year period, 116 Citrobacter isolates were obtained from 77 patients with 83 suspected infectious episodes. The majority of the suspected infectious episodes involved the urinary tract (45%) or respiratory tract (41%). Citrobacter diversus was associated with 42% of the episodes, Citrobacter freundii with 29%, and Citrobacter species with 29%. In 42% of the suspected infectious episodes, the presence of Citrobacter was considered clinically significant; in the others, the significance of the Citrobacter isolates was indeterminate or considered to be commensal. Two thirds of the significant infections were hospital-acquired. Most patients (73%) from whom Citrobacter was cultured had underlying diseases or factors predisposing to infection. These data suggest that Citrobacter is a cause of significant opportunistic nosocomial infection in the hospital.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002954:Citrobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D004756:Enterobacteriaceae Infections; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology