Determination of antimicrobial resistance pattern and molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from patients in a teaching hospital of Isfahan, Iran

Background: S. aureus seems to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of infection in hospitals setting. This study aimed to the investigation of the prevalence of S. aureus isolates and the determination of antibiotic susceptibility pattern and the different types of SCCmec in MRSA isolates obtained from a clinical sample in Isfahan, Iran. Methods: This study was performed during January 2013 to March 2014 at tertiary care hospitals. S. aureus isolates were collected from the clinical samples. Determination of antibiotic susceptibility pattern was done by the disc diffusion method. Also, SCCmec typing was performed by PCR method. Results: A total of 150 S. aureus isolates were collected from the different clinical sample. Among them, 41.3% (62/150) isolates were MRSA. The most sensitivity for MRSA isolates was to vancomycin with 90% sensitivity and the high rate of resistance was toward tetracycline in MRSA and MSSA isolates. All of MRSA isolates were MDR. The rate of SCCmec types IV, III, I and II among MRSA isolates were 44.4%, 40.7%, 11.1% and 3.7, respectively. Conclusions: The results of the current study showed that S. aureus especially MRSA isolates with a high rate of resistance still remains an important healthcare problem. Majority of the isolates were community-acquired and belonged to Sccmec type.