Epidemiological and Inducible Resistance in Coagulase Negative Staphylococci

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) are potential pathogens with the increased use of implants in hospitals. Macrolide, lincosamide and streptogramin B (MLSB) are used in the treatment of staphylococcal infections. The aim of this study was to molecular detection of inducible clindamycin resistance and genetic pattern in CNS isolates and their transmission between hospitals. MATERIALS & METHODS 110 CNS strains, isolated from hospitalized patients in the intensive care unit and infectious wards of Besat and Toohid hospitals, Sanandaj. Methicillin resistance was done by agar screen test and the resistance inducible Clindamycin by the D-Test. Multiplex PCR was performed, using primers specific for erm (A, B, C, and TR) genes. Diversity of strains was determined by ERIC-PCR technique based on the similarities between DNA fingerprints by using Jaccards coefficient in the SAHN program of the NTSYS-pc software. RESULTS Of the 110 isolates, 64(58.2%) were methicillin -resistant CNS (MRCNS), 48(43.6%) were resistant to erythromycin (ERCNS). Out of 48 Erythromycin-resistant strains 5 (10.4%) were iMLS B phenotypes that 4 isolates showed genes erm by Multiplex PCR. The ERIC-PCR profiles allowed typing of the 110 isolates into 90 ERIC-types which were grouped into fourteen main clusters (C1-C14). CONCLUSION The results of this study also showed that most of CNS isolated produced different genomic fingerprint patterns, therefore, source of infection is differen t.