Abstract

Nocardia is a gram-positive, acid-fast bacillus causing various clinical infections mostly in compromised hosts. Two cultures of N. asteroides were obtained ; one from a back trunk abscess of a 37-year-old male with Hodgkin's disease and the other from a buttock abscess of a 12-year-old girl. The former case had a history of therapy with cytotoxic drugs and steroides and the latter with intramuscular injections for her synovitis. These were thought to be the possible predisposing factors of the infections. In both cases, the direct smear of pus revealed the characteristic morphology of Nocardia and the culture yielded, N. asteroides which were identified on the basis of cultural and biochemical characteristics.