Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in atopic dermatitis patients in Mansoura, Egypt

Abstract

BackgroundAtopic dermatitis (AD) patients are more frequently colonized with Staphylococcus aureus. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) colonization in AD patients in a dermatology clinic in Mansoura, Egypt, and to assess the resistance pattern and the superantigen genes among isolated strains.MethodsSixty AD patients were evaluated for the carriage of CA-MRSA in both lesional skin and nose. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed using the disc diffusion method. The detection of mecA gene and superantigen genes, toxic shock syndrome toxin (tsst), and staphylococcal enterotoxin sea-sed were done by PCR.ResultsTwenty-eight patients (46.7%) were colonized with CA-MRSA. All isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. Only 9.7% of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, while 52.6% of isolates were resistant to fusidic acid and 48.4% were resistant to erythromycin. The predominant toxin gene found in AD patients was tsst that found in 100% of isolates of CA-MRSA, while seb and sed genes found only in 61.2% of the isolates.ConclusionAtopic dermatitis patients were colonized with CA-MRSA. The most common toxin gene in the Egyptian AD patients was tsst. There is no significant association between any of superantigen genes and severity of AD.