Bacillus cereus bacteremia in an adult with acute leukemia.

Bacillus cereus, which used to be considered non-pathogenic, was isolated from the blood of a patient with acute leukemia who was receiving intensive chemotherapy. Fatal bacteremia developed with a clinical syndrome of acute gastroenteritis, followed by both meningoencephalitis with subarachnoid hemorrhage and multiple liver abscesses probably caused by infective vasculitis. Surveillance stool cultures revealed colonization with the organism prior to the onset of diarrhea, and repetitive blood cultures were found to be positive. Thus, this case suggested some new important clinicopathologic features of true B. cereus bacteremia complicating acute leukemia.