Héctor Castro

[Community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus isolated from Paraguayan children: clinical, phenotypic and genotypic characterization].

INTRODUCTION The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in the community has increased, being the pediatric population the most affected. This fact highlights the need for epidemiological surveillance. AIM To characterize clinical, phenotypic and genotypic isolates of S. aureus childrens samples with community-acquired infections, collected in hospitals of Asuncion and the Central Department, between November 2009 and December 2010. MATERIALS AND METHODS Descriptive and transverse analysis with analytical component. Clinical data collected by medical records, antibiotic susceptibility according to CLSI criteria and detection of mecA (encoding methicillin resistance) and luk-PV genes (encoding Panton Valentine leucocidin) by PCR using specific oligonucleotides. RESULTS 123 isolates of S. aureus, 76% came from skin and soft tissue infections and 20% from sepsis. 18.7% (n = 23) were resistant to methicillin (MRSA). The presence of the mecA gene, a variant there and the PVL was detected in 12.2 and 48 isolates respectively. 43% of MRSA (n = 10) was carrying luk-PV. The clinical and demographic differences between patients infected with MRSA or MSSA were not statistically significant. DISCUSSION This study constitutes the first phenotypic and genotypic characterization of S. aureus associated with pediatric patients in Paraguay.

Estandarización del análisis multi-locus de número variable de repeticiones en tándem para el estudio de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina aislados de la comunidad en Paraguay

Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen that can produce several infections with a wide range of severity and it has the hability to adapt to different tissues. The epidemiology is complex, by circulation of many differents clones worlwide, so the analysis for its identification requires reproducible and high discriminatory powder molecular methods. The aim of this study was to standardize the molecular technique multiple-locus variable number of tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) for the genetic variability analysis of S. aureus isolates, previously characterized by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The MLVA was made by PCR amplification of seven VNTR locus (clfA, clfB, sdrC, sdrD, sdrE, sspA y spA). A high level of reproducibility has reached in the study. The use of isolates previously typified by multi-locus secuencing typing (MLST), PFGE, locus spa and cassette SCCmec, allowed to validate the MLVA clusters comparatively. The isolates that were clustered by MLVA as the same isolate, showed the same results by other molecular techniques, and the MLVA can distinguish isolates with identical PFGE patterns. This technique have all criteria of a usefull molecular typification technique.