[Occurrence of Corynebacterium amycolatum strains in clinical specimens].

C. amycolatum is poorly recognized and rarely described in the world literature. So, better recognizing and understanding biology of these bacteria may help effectively prevent infections caused by them. The subject within the study were 70 of C. amycolatum strains which were isolated from the clinical specimens of patients hospitalized at the State Clinical Hospital in Bydgoszcz. After initial identification of examined strains based on Gram staining results, colonial morphology, biochemical and enzymatic features included in API Coryne and API ZYM tests (bioMérieux), growth at 20 degrees C, Tween 80 requirement, DNA and tyrosine hydrolysis, occurrence in clinical specimens and origin of C. amycolatum strains were analyzed. The investigated strains were the most frequently isolated from wound swabs (61.5%), urine (14.3%), drain swabs (7.1%) and mainly (37.2%) came from patients treated at the departments of surgery.