J Korean Med Sci.  2010 Feb;25(2):197-202. 10.3346/jkms.2010.25.2.197.

Genetic Correlation of Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains from Carriers and from Patients with Clinical Infection in One Region of Korea

• Bae IG
• Kim JS
• Kim S
• Heo ST
• Chang C
• Lee EY

• KMID: 1779247
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2010.25.2.197

Abstract

Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is an increasingly common worldwide and colonizing S. aureus strains may serve as the causative pathogen for overt clinical infections. This study was performed to determine whether the pathogenic CA-MRSA isolate in clinical infections was genetically related to the MRSA isolates in community carriers. We prospectively collected a total of 42 CA-MRSA isolates (23 clinical infection isolates and 19 colonization isolates) in a local region of Korea. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests, staphylococcal toxin assays, SCCmec typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and spa (staphylococcal protein A) typing were performed with all isolates. Thirty-four (81%) of 42 CA-MRSA isolates belonged to sequence type (ST) 72 in the MLST analysis. The distribution of STs did not differ significantly between colonization and clinical infection isolates (89.5% [17/19] vs. 73.9% [17/23], P=0.26). Among the ST72-MRSA isolates, spa type t664 (18, 52.9%) and t324 (8, 23.5%) were common in both groups. This study demonstrates that the community-associated MRSA strains from patients with clinical infections are closely related to the strains found in carriers from one local community.

Keyword

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Community-Acquired Infections; Genotype; Carrier State

MeSH Terms

Community-Acquired Infections/microbiology
Genotype
Humans
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/*genetics/isolation & purification
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Prospective Studies
Republic of Korea
Staphylococcal Infections/*microbiology

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Enrollment of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates. *This is the percentage of MRSA isolates among all S. aureus isolates. HPC, Health promotion center; ES, Elementary school.

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