The E test (AB Biodisk NA Inc.) was compared with standard reference methods using the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards's recommendations for determining the MICs of four selected antibiotics against 208 clinical isolates of gram-positive bacteria. These bacteria included 32 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, 25 strains of Enterococcus faecium, 20 strains of oxacillin-sens...

This study aimed to determine the levels of the macrolides-lincosamides-streptogramins B (MLS(B)) resistance phenotype of Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) isolates from clinical samples. A total of 521 strains of staphylococci, comprising 230 S. aureus and 291 CNS isolates from various clinical samples, were identified by conventional methods. The double-disc tes...

Milk is considered a nutritious food because it contains several important nutrients including proteins and vitamins. Conversely, it can be a vehicle for several pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. This study aimed to analyze the frequency of genes encoding the nine Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) and enterotoxin gene profiles in S. aureus isolates derived from raw bovine milk....

One of virulence factors produced by Staphylococcus aureus is staphylokinase (SAK), which enhances their proteolytic activity leading to tissue damage and improving bacterial invasiveness. In the present study we estimated the ability to produce staphylokinase by 95 S. aureus reference strains and clinical isolates from the airways of cystic fibrosis patients, from skin lesions and from infecte...

introduction: drug resistant staphylococci are the most important agents of nosocomial infections. in this survey, effect of different antibiotics on these bacteria and their drug resistance was investigated. methods: the study included 500 strains of staphylococci. minimum inhibitory concentrations of all antibiotics was determined by the broth macro dilution technique and standard methods fro...

Staphylococcus aureus infection is a frequent cause of sepsis in humans, a disease associated with high mortality and without specific intervention. When suspended in human or animal plasma, staphylococci are known to agglutinate, however the bacterial factors responsible for agglutination and their possible contribution to disease pathogenesis have not yet been revealed. Using a mouse model fo...

Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) is a commonly used, safe intensive insulin therapy method effective in maintaining normoglycaemia. The disadvantage of CSII are skin infections of the catheter injection site. The aim of the study was to gain insight on the colonization of subcutaneous insulin pump catheters by skin flora and to investigate the correlation between Staphylococcus a...

A total of 187 isolates from several clinical specimens were identified to species level as 129 Staphylococcus aureus strains and 58 coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) strains by the API Staph System (Biomerieux). Slime production was detected both by the conventional Christensen's method as well as by the Congo red agar method. Seventy-two strains of staphylococci isolates (38.5%) were fou...

Staphylococcus simulans bv. staphylolyticus secretes lysostaphin, a bacteriocin that cleaves pentaglycine cross bridges in the cell wall of Staphylococcus aureus. The C-terminal cell wall-targeting domain (CWT) of lysostaphin is required for selective binding of this bacteriocin to S. aureus cells; however, the molecular target for this was unknown. We used purified green fluorescent protein fu...

Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus are the most common causes of medical device-associated infections, including septicemic loosenings of orthopedic implants. Frequently, the microbiological diagnosis of these infections remains ambiguous, since at least some staphylococci have the capacity to reduce their growth rate considerably. These strains exhibit a small-colony phenotyp...