Evaluation of Enterococcus Isolates Isolated in Three Years Period at Zonguldak Karaelmas University Hospital

• Main Authors: Füsun CÖMERT, Canan KÜLAH, Özlem EROĞLU, Elif AKTAŞ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bilimsel Tip Yayinevi 2007-06-01
• Series: Flora Infeksiyon Hastalıkları ve Klinik Mikrobiyoloji Dergisi
• Subjects: Enterococci; Antimicrobial resistance; Aminoglycosides
• Online Access: http://www.floradergisi.org/getFileContent.aspx?op=REDPDF&file_name=2007-12-2-098-102.pdf

The aim of the study was to identify Enterococcus isolates to species level from various samples obtained at Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Research and Application Hospital Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, between January 2002 and April 2005 and to evaluate their antimicrobial resistance profile. A total of 222 isolates were investigated. One hundred and eighteen isolates were identified at species level by using API 20 Strep identification system. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used for the determination of penicillin, streptomycin, gentamicin, vancomycin and teicoplanin susceptibility. Streptomycin 300 µg and gentamicin 120 µg discs were used to determine high-level resistance to aminoglycosides. Seventy-seven of the 115 isolates were identified as Enterococcus faecalis (67.3%), 31 as Enterococcus faecium (26.9%), three as Enterococcus casseliflavus (2.6%) and one as Enterococcus durans (0.9%). Three isolates couldn’t be identified (2.6%) with the mentioned system. Resistance to penicillin was 50% for the total isolates while it was 40.2% for E. faecalis and 70.9% for E. faecium strains. In all strains high-level resistance to aminoglycosides for streptomycin and gentamicin were 54.9% and 46.8%, respectively. Resistance to both streptomycin and gentamicin was determined in 21 of the total strains (9.4%). All strains were susceptible to vancomycin and teicoplanin. No beta-lactamase producing isolates were detected.