OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to compare the current screening methods and to evaluate confirmation tests for phenotypic plasmidal AmpC (pAmpC) detection. METHODS For this evaluation we used 503 Enterobacteriaceae from 18 Dutch hospitals and 21 isolates previously confirmed to be pAmpC positive. All isolates were divided into three groups: isolates with 1) reduced susceptibility to cef...

Detection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by CHROMagar Versus Cefoxitin Disk Diffusion Method

INTRODUCTION The characteristics and antimicrobial resistance profiles of Staphylococcus aureus differs according to geographical regions and in relation to antibiotic usage. The aim of this study was to determine the biochemical characteristics of the prevalent S. aureus from Ekiti State, Nigeria, and to evaluate three commonly used disk diffusion methods (cefoxitin, oxacillin, and methicillin...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE AmpC β lactamases are one of the important causes of drug resistance in gram negative bacteria. Failure to detect these enzymes in the laboratory has contributed to therapeutic failures but there are till date no standard guideline available. This study was therefore undertaken to evaluate three phenotypic laboratory tests and the inhibitors used in two of the tests to ...

The Bacillus licheniformis BS3 beta-lactamase catalyzes the hydrolysis of the beta-lactam ring of penicillins, cephalosporins, and related compounds. The production of beta-lactamases is the most common and thoroughly studied cause of antibiotic resistance. Although they escape the hydrolytic activity of the prototypical Staphylococcus aureus beta-lactamase, many cephems are good substrates for...

Two isolation methods were compared for isolation of Clostridium difficile from food animal feces. The single alcohol shock method (SS) used selective enrichment in cycloserine-cefoxitin fructose broth supplemented with 0.1% sodium taurocholate, followed by alcohol shock and isolation on tryptic soy agar supplemented with 5% sheep blood, and cycloserine-cefoxitin fructose agar. The double alcoh...

BACKGROUND Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been emerged as a nosocomial and community acquired pathogen worldwide. There are many challenges for laboratory detection of MRSA. The aim of this study was to compare different phenotypic methods with PCR based method as a gold standard for detection of mecA gene. METHODS A total of 220 clinical isolates of S. aureus which we...

The enzymic inactivation of cephamycins, i.e. cefoxitin, cefmetazole, cefotetan and cefbuperazone, was investigated by means of bioassay, high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and spectrophotometric analysis using three types of cephalosporinase (CSase, RICHMOND type Ia, Ib and Ic) and one penicillinase (PCase, TEM type). These four cephamycins were not inactivated by Ic CSase and TEM type...

OBJECTIVE Ampicillin plus sulbactam, an irreversible beta-lactamase inhibitor, was compared to cefoxitin in the treatment of women with acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) with and without inflammatory mass(es). METHODS Participation in an open, prospective, randomized clinical trial was offered to all women given the clinical diagnosis of acute PID who required inpatient therapy. Neisser...

There are currently no standardized phenotypic methods for the screening and detection of AmpC enzymes. This study aimed to evaluate different methods to detect AmpC enzymes in Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., and Proteus spp., comparing the results from two disk-based methods and an agar dilution method. AmpC activity was determined for 255 clinical isolates by use of a three-dimensional enz...