Fulminating Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteremia.

We have reported a case of disseminated Staphylococcus epidermidis infection in a patient with leukemia and examined the relation between an acute respiratory arrest and the infection. Plasmid profiles of five isolates of S epidermidis cultured from this patient's blood, bone marrow, and lung before and after the arrest indicate that all isolates were derived from a single strain. This strain was also isolated by culture of the tip of the central venous catheter that was removed from the patient suggesting that the indwelling catheter was the source of infection. Because this patient had rigors during an infusion through the catheter just before the acute respiratory arrest, we suspect that infusion through the colonized catheter precipitated the respiratory arrest.