Pathogenicity of Staphylococci

Abstract

THE bacterial species Micrococcus pyogenes var. aureus (Staphylococcus aureus) is often highly pathogenic for human beings, but the virulence of individual strains within the species varies considerably and except when a strain has been isolated from an obviously infected lesion its pathogenicity is always open to question. For this reason any test that can be correlated with pathogenicity in human patients is desirable. The production of coagulase is the test most widely used to indicate pathogenicity in vitro, and yet coagulase-positive staphylococci are commonly found in the absence of disease and, vice versa, coagulase-negative staphylococci occasionally cause infection. The present . . .