Is Haemophilus influenzae better satellite for Enterococcus faecalis?

Background — Haemophilus influenzae can grow on blood agar media with Staphylococcus aureus which can provide factor V as it is called “Satellite phenomenon”. Objectives — In this study we tested and compared three different beta-haemolytic genus including three Staphylococcus aureus, three coagulase-negative staphylococci, and two Enterococcus faecalis strains in order to determine an alternative microorganism to be used for satellite test to identify H. influenzae conventionally. Materials and Methods — We used suspensions of H. influenzae in two different tribudities as 0.5 and 4 McFarland for each strain. Five totally-blinded reviewers examined the test results and scored both the colony sizes of H. influenzae and the diameter of the growth-zone. The sum of the scores for the colony sizes and the growth-zones were determined as “total diagnostic score” (TDS) as being between 0-6 points for each test. Results — A total of 320 test scores were analysed. The mean TDS of E. faecalis group was significantly higher than the other groups (p<0.001). In the S. aureus group, 23 (19.2%) tests had 0 points as TDS; but in enterococci group no isolates had lower scores than 3 points. In enterococci group, the rate of isolates which had 5 or 6 points was 77.5% (62/80); but in S. aureus group no isolate had higher than 4 points. Conclusions — Our study shows that using a beta-haemolytic E. faecalis strain will provide significantly more accurate results and will significantly reduce false-negative results for satellite test instead of S. aureus, which is particularly proposed to be used

Evaluation of emm gene types, toxin gene profiles and clonal relatedness of group A streptococci

The aim of this study is to evaluate antibiotic susceptibilities, emm gene types, toxin gene profiles and clonal relatedness of group A streptococci (GAS) isolates obtained from patients and carriers. A total of 79 clinical isolates from patients and 60 isolates from carriers were included in the study. Emm typing, toxin gene detection for speA, speB, speC, speG and smeZ genes and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed. Twenty-one distinct emm types were detected; the most common types were emm12, emm89, emm1, emm77, emm4 and emm3. The detection rates of both emm types and the toxingenes didn't differ significantly between patients and carriers. The presence of speA and smeZ was significantly higher in emm1 and speG was significantly lower in emm4 when compared to the other emm types. The rate of clustering obtained with PFGE wasn't significantly different in patients and carriers. As a result, twelve of the 21 emm types detected in this study were covered by the 26-valent vaccine, constituting 77.7% of the emm typeable isolates; however the emm4 type which is one of the most common types in the present study is not among this coverage

Carriage of Class 1 and 2 Integrons in Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Clinical Specimens and a Novel Gene Cassette Array: bla(OXA-11)-cmlA7

SANDALLI, Cemal/0000-0002-1298-3687WOS: 000332131600005PubMed: 24506715The dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria leads to serious problems in the treatment of infectious diseases. It has been shown that resistance genes can also be carried by the integrons. There are limited studies regarding the carriage of class 1 and 2 integrons in Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical strains in Turkey. the aims of this study were to investigate the carriage rates of class 1 and class 2 integrons in A.baumannii and P.aeruginosa strains isolated from clinical samples in Abant Izzet Baysal University Hospital, and to characterize the antibiotic resistance gene cassettes in these integrons by sequence analyses. A total of 137 strains (77 A.baumannii and 60 P.aeruginosa) isolated from various clinical specimens (56% were sputum, 19% wound, 11% urine, 11% blood, 3% catheter), between March 2010-December 2012, were included in the study. the identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests of the isolates were performed by Vitek 2 Compact (bioMerieux, France) and BD Phoenix 100 (Becton Dickinson, USA) systems. the presence of integrons were screened by PCR method using specific primer pairs targeting class 1 (intil1) and 2 (intl2) integrase regions. All the samples that revealed integron amplification were subjected to DNA sequence analysis, both in the forms of cloned products and PCR amplicons. in the study, the highest susceptibility rates were found against colistin (96%) and tigecycline (78%) in A.baumannii, and against piperacillin/tazobactam (97%) and piperacillin (93%) in P.aeruginosa isolates. the highest resistance rate was determined for piperacillin/tazobactam (95%) in A.baumannii strains. the presence of intl1 gene was detected in 33% (26/77) of A.baumannii and 10% (6/60) of P.aeruginosa isolates. When variable regions in intl1 positive strains were amplified by PCR, eight (8/77, 10%) A.baumannii and three (3/60, 5%) P.aeruginosa strains were found to harbor antibiotic resistance gene cassettes. Intl2 gene was not detected in any of the isolates. Resistance to piperacillin/tazobactam, ceftazidime, cefepime, ceftriaxone and ampicillin/sulbactam was detected as the common resistance pattern in all integron-positive A.baumannii strains, whereas resistance to ceftazidime, gentamicin and ciprofloxacin was the common pattern in all integron-positive P.aeruginosa strains. DNA sequence analysis of variable regions of integrons indicated that two separate gene cassette arrays (aacC1-aadAl and aac(3)-1) were carried by A.baumannii strains, and two types of gene cassette arrays (bla(OXA-30)-aadA1 and bla(OXA-11)-cmlA7) were carried by P.aeruginosa strains. To our best knowledge, this is the first report of the gene sequence of bia(OXA-11)-cmlA7 defined in an integron gene cassette of P.aeruginosa