Cell wall-deficient bacterial variant cultural surveillance. A useful laboratory aid.

A cell wall-deficient variant of Corynebacterium species was isolated from the blood of a patient with a chronic febrille illness of unkown etiology. He was given antimicrobial therapy, to which both variant and reverted bacterial forms of this organism were sensitive, and he recovered. Cultural surveillance for cell wall-deficient organisms was not only helpful in confirming the presence of infection in our patient but also in following his clinical course once antimicrobial therapy had been instituted.