Virulence and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bloodstream infections and pneumonia in Southern Poland

  • Monika Pomorska-Wesolowska
  • , Agnieszka Chmielarczyk*
  • , Monika Chlebowicz
  • , Grzegorz Ziolkowski
  • , Anna Szczypta
  • , Joanna Natkaniec
  • , Dorota Romaniszyn
  • , Monika Pobiega
  • , Miroslawa Dzikowska
  • , Lech Krawczyk
  • , Joanna Koziol
  • , Jadwiga Wojkowska-Mach
  • *Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)
    91 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus remains the most important cause of infections in hospitals and long-term care facilities. The aim of this study was to analyse the resistance, virulence, and epidemiological and genetic relationships of S. aureus from bloodstream infections (BSIs) and pneumonia from patients in Southern Poland.

    Methods: All strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using the disk diffusion method. Etest was also performed for vancomycin, teicoplanin, tigecycline, oxacillin, cefoxitin and penicillin. PCR amplification was used to detect selected virulence genes. The genetic similarity of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates was determined by spa typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Using the BURP algorithm and the Ridom SpaServer database, spa types were clustered into different clonal complexes (spa-CCs).

    Results and conclusions: MRSA strains were observed at a prevalence of 26.7%, but 88.6% of hospital-acquired infections were MRSA, with no difference between BSIs and pneumonia. The highest resistance was observed to erythromycin and tobramycin. None of the strains were resistant to linezolid, glycopeptides or tigecycline. The strains had no significant virulence factors and the number of virulence genes present did not correlate with the degree of drug resistance. PFGE typing showed relatively high diversity of strains. The majority of isolates belonged to spa type t003 (CC5).

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)100-104
    Number of pages5
    JournalJournal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance
    Volume11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec-2017

    Keywords

    • Virulence
    • Resistance
    • Bloodstream infection
    • Pneumonia
    • Typing
    • METHICILLIN-RESISTANT

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Virulence and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bloodstream infections and pneumonia in Southern Poland'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this