We conducted a matched case-control study to compare the effect of antecedent treatment with various antibiotics on subsequent isolation of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE); 880 in-patients; 233 VRE cases, and 647 matched controls were included. After being matched for hospital location, calendar time, and duration of hospitalization, the following variables predicted VRE positivity: mai...

BACKGROUND Bile esculin azide with vancomycin (BEAV) medium is a sensitive, but slightly less specific method for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) screening. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a rapid method for identification of clinical pathogens. This study aimed to assess the performance of a novel combination screening test ...

We prospectively identified patients at the Massachusetts General Hospital from whom vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) were isolated from a clinical specimen from 1 January 1991 through 31 December 1995. VRE strains were available from 139 (82%) of the 169 patients with clinical cases. Of these, 39 (28%) were identical or closely related by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (i.e., VRE type ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the EVIGENE VRE Detection kit and compare it with PCR, considered the gold standard for detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). The correlation between the MIC values of vancomycin and teicoplanin using the epsilon test was also determined. In the EVIGENE VRE Detection kit, DNA probes specific for bacterial target DNA sequenc...

The effects of teicoplanin (8 micrograms/ml), ampicillin (64 micrograms/ml), imipenem (32 micrograms/ml), and gentamicin (4 micrograms/ml), alone and in combination, against 13 unique blood isolates of vancomycin-resistance (MIC for 90% of isolates tested [MIC90], 512 micrograms/ml), teicoplanin-susceptible (MIC90, 2.0 micrograms/ml), ampicillin-resistant (MIC90, 128 micrograms/ml), and non-bet...

The view on enterococci has over the years shifted from harmless commensals to opportunistic but important pathogens mainly causing nosocomial infections. One important part of this development is the emergence of vancomycin resistance enterococci (VRE). The term VRE includes several combinations of bacterial species and resistance genes of which the most clinically important is Enterococcus fa...

BACKGROUND The goal of this study was to develop a validated prediction rule for identification of patients harboring vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) at hospital admission. METHODS A model for the prediction of patients harboring VRE at admission was created and validated by assigning weighted point values to independent risk factors associated with harboring VRE at admission, in 2 dif...

We analyzed surveillance cultures for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) collected during a multicenter trial to determine if three negative cultures collected at weekly intervals would predict clearance of VRE or MRSA from colonized patients. Seventy-two percent of VRE-colonized patients and 94% of MRSA-colonized patients were culture ...

BACKGROUND Prolonged asymptomatic carriage of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in the gastrointestinal tract and the lack of effective decolonization regimen perpetuate the endemicity of VRE in the healthcare settings. CASE PRESENTATION We report a regimen for decolonization of gastrointestinal carriage of VRE by a combination of environmental disinfection, patient isolation, bowel prep...