Bacteremia from streptococcus constellatus revealing a gastrointestinal stromal tumor

Gut Pathog. 2024 Jan 4;16(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s13099-023-00593-6.

Abstract

Background: Pyogenic Liver Abscesses (PLA) are the most common type of visceral abscess. They generally develop in a context of biliary disease or hematogenous seeding, but a complete diagnostic work-up is always required in order not to miss other important causes, including above all malignancies of the gastro-intestinal tract.

Case presentation: Herein, we report a particular case of a 80 years-old immunocompetent woman hospitalized for sepsis. At the end of the diagnostic process, Streptococcus constellatus (Sc) was identified as the cause of sepsis, multiple PLA were found together with a previous unknown ileal malignancy. We speculated about a possible correlation among these three entities (i.e. sepsis from Sc, PLA and tumors).

Conclusions: Detection of Sc in blood should raise red flags in clinicians as aggressive clinical presentation are possible.

Keywords: Bacteriemia; GIST; Pyogenic liver abscesses; Streptococcus constellatus.