A mouse model of intestinal colonization with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) was used to study the effect of different beta-lactam antibiotics on establishment of VRE colonization. A clinical VanB VRE isolate, Enterococcus faecium C68 (102 or 104 cfu), was inoculated by gastric gavage in conjunction with subcutaneous administration of antibiotics. The MIC of ceftriaxone and ticarcillin ...

To determine the prevalence and rate of acquisition of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) among patients undergoing chronic (i.e., long-term) hemodialysis who were admitted to a tertiary care center, serial rectal cultures for VRE were performed at hospital admission and every 5 days until hospital discharge. A total of 7 (6%) of the 119 patients were colonized with VRE at admission. Six (1...

BACKGROUND Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) recently have emerged as a nosocomial pathogen among dialysis patients. This study aims to appraise the prevalence, incidence density and risk factors for VRE colonization among these patients. METHODS In this prospective study, 782 stool or rectal swab specimens were collected from 250 chronic hemodialysis patients with an interval of at leas...

A collection of genetically unrelated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) including 50 vanA, 15 vanB, 50 vanC1, and 30 vanC2 VRE were used to evaluate the accuracy of eight currently available susceptibility test methods (agar dilution, disk diffusion, E-test, agar screen plate, Vitek GPS-TA and GPS-101, and MicroScan overnight and rapid panels). vanA VRE were detected by all methods. vanB V...

BACKGROUND Patients colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) frequently contaminate their environment, but the environmental role of VRE transmission remains controversial. METHODS During a 14-month study in 2 intensive care units, weekly environmental and twice-weekly patient surveillance cultures were obtained. VRE acquisition was defined as a positive culture result >48 h afte...

Antibiotic-mediated microbiota destruction and the consequent loss of colonization resistance can result in intestinal domination with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), leading to bloodstream infection in hospitalized patients. Clearance of VRE remains a challenging goal that, if achieved, would reduce systemic VRE infections and patient-to-patient transmission. Although obligate anaerob...

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have recently emerged as a nosocomial pathogen and present an increasing threat to the treatment of severely ill patients in intensive-care hospital settings. We outline results of a study of the epidemiology of VRE transmission in ICUs and define a reproductive number R0; the number of secondary colonization cases induced by a single VRE-colonized patient...

A mouse model of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) intestinal colonization was used to study the effect of different subcutaneous antibiotics on persistence and density of VRE colonization. Gastric inoculation of a clinical VanB VRE isolate, in conjunction with oral vancomycin in drinking water (250 microgram/mL), resulted in high-level VRE colonization (mean, 9.5 log10 cfu/g) in ...

We used a mouse model to test the hypothesis that anaerobic microbiota in the colon inhibit the establishment of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) colonization by depleting nutrients within cecal contents and limiting the association of VRE with the mucus layer. Anaerobic growth of VRE was assessed in cecal contents and cecal mucus of mice that had received treatment with subcutaneous clin...

In 1996, the dominant (43%) strain of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE; type A) at Massachusetts General Hospital was identified at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). To characterize the epidemiology of infection with type A isolates of VRE at BWH, we collected demographic and clinical data for all patients from whom VRE were isolated from a clinical specimen through September 1996. The f...