Stenotrophomonas maltophilia infection of the central venous catheter and lysis of an old thrombosis in a post-bone marrow transplantation child: Implications in the fibrinolytic process

Abstract

In this report, we describe an 11-y-old girl who developed jugular venous thrombosis after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for lymphoma and then experienced dissolution of the thrombosis following catheter-related Stenothrophomonas maltophilia bactearemia. The lysis of the old thrombosis around the central venous catheter suggested a local fibrinolytic activity of S. maltophilia. The global fibrinolytic capacity (GFC) was also tested in vitro by using S. maltophilia cultures obtained from the present patient; GFC of the patient was compared to that of another isolate of S. maltophilia, other bacteria (S. pyogenes and E. coli), and control plasma. The fibrinolytic capasity of S. maltophilia was significantly higher than that of the control plasma (p<0.05) and almost equal to that of S. pyogenes (p>0.05). Thus, if a potent local fibrinolytic activity of S. maltophilia is evident, the use of the fibrinolytic enzyme of S. maltophilia as a thrombolytic agent may be a useful therapeutic adjunct in the future. Further studies are needed to comfirm the results obtained in the present study.