MRSA Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about MRSA, including details on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Detection of low-level oxacillin resistance in mecA-positive Staphylococcus aureus.

Witte W, Pasemann B, Cuny C

Robert Koch Institute, Wernigerode, Germany. wittew@rki.de

Detection of low-level oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a problem that needs special attention, particularly in relation to methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains in the community that belong to clonal lineage ST80. This study compared different phenotypic methods for the detection of 74 low-level oxacillin-resistant S. aureus strains (oxacillin MIC <or=1 mg/L), 46 MRSA strains (oxacillin MIC >or=2 mg/L) and 117 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus strains. Determination of microbroth dilution MICs for oxacillin was wholly unsatisfactory, and gave a limited specificity for cefoxitin. The sensitivity of disk-diffusion performed according to CLSI recommendations was 92% with an oxacillin 1-microg disk, and 96% with a cefoxitin 30-microg disk; use of a 10-microg cefoxitin disk and a semi-confluent inoculum (breakpoint for resistance <18 mm zone diameter) gave a sensitivity of 97%. When disk-diffusion was performed on IsoSensitest agar with a zone diameter breakpoint for resistance of <22 mm (as recommended by the Swedish Reference Group for Antibiotics), the sensitivity was 95%.

Published 15 March 2007 in Clin Microbiol Infect, 13(4): 408-12.
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