Correlation between species-level identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci and accuracy of methicillin resistance coagulase-negative staphylococci detection

Abstract

Objective To evaluate accuracy of cefoxitin disk testing for detecting oxacillin resistance coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCNS). Methods 139 clinical coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were detected with ID32 STAPH. Cefoxitin disk and oxacillin disk testing were used to detect MRCNS. PBP2a was tested by latex agglutination us a reference method. Results 139 CNS isolates were identified to 8 species: Staphylococcus haemolyticus , S. epidermidis , S. hominis , S. xylosus , S. saprophyticus , S. auricularis , S. simulans and S. warneri. The sensitivity and specificity for cefoxtin disk and oxacillin disk testing were 99.0% vs. 86.0% and 91.7% vs. 74.4%, respectively. One S. epidermidis strain was identified to affect the sensitivity of cefoxitin disk testing. S. xylosus, S. warned, and S. saprophyticus were major species related to the decrease of specificity of cefoxitin disk testing. S. haemolyticus, S. hominis, S. simulans and S. auricularis were major species related to the decrease of sensitivity of oxacillin disk testing. And the decrease of specificity of oxacillin disk testing were mainly related to S. hominis , S. simulans , S. xylosus , S. auricularis , S. saprophyticus and S. warneri. Conclusions The accuracy of MRCNS detection by cefoxitin disk testing is varied due to different CNS species. So it is necessary to test PBP2a or mecA gene according to CNS species, especially for S. xylosus, S. warned and S. saprophyticus. Key words: Staphylococcus; Oxacillin; Drug resistance,bacterial; Cefoxitin; Disk diffusion antimcrobial tests