ABSTRACT
A "voman became febrile after immunosuppressive therapy following a kidney transplant. Chest x rays revealed pneumonia. Cultures of sputum, blood, and urine were uninformative . She was treated empirically ,vith largc doses of penicillin. without response. Following autopsy a piece of consol idated lung was sent to the laboratory for culturc of CWD organisms. This specimen, examined by Wickers80 in our laboratory, yielded a Gram-positive pleomorphic organism in hypertonic medium containing serum and separately autoclaved yeast extract. With successive transplants , the morphology and capsule suggcsted pneumococci (see color insert) . The strain gave inconsistent surface growth as a-hemolytic, very mucoid colonies. It was bile soluble and capsular swell ing occurred with Type III pneumococcal antibody. This case appears to indicate pathogenesis for CWD organisms in the transplant recipient.
