Abstract
Enterococcus faecalis andEnterococcus faecium isolated from Korea patients in 1998 and 2005 were tested for susceptibility to nine different antimicrobial agents, including vancomycin and teicoplanin. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for the detection of several vancomycin resistance genes such asvanA (‘high level’),vanB (‘moderate high level’),vanC1 andvanC2 (‘low level’). BothE. faecalis andE. faecium exhibited a resistance of 80% and more than 60% to synercid and mupirocin, respectively. Moreover, an average of 76% of all isolates was resistant to Ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, lincomycin, cefotaxime, and meropenem, confirming the multiple drug resistance of most of the isolates. No resistance to vancomycin or teicoplanin was observed in the 1998E. faecalis andE. faecium isolates. However, the 2005E. faecalis andE. faecium isolates exhibited resistance of 16% and 12% to vancomycin and teicoplanin, respectively. In addition,vanA gene was detected in 4 strains of 2005E. faecium isolates, thus showing a high resistance to vancomycin. No other vancomycin resistance genes, includingvanB, vanC1, andvanC2, were found in our isolates. In this study, we compared the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and the presence of specific resistance genes inE. faecalis andE. faecium. The results showed that the 2005 isolates were usually more resistant than the 1998 isolates.
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Yang, J., Lee, D., Kim, Y. et al. Occurrence of the Van Genes inEnterococcus faecalis andEnterococcus faecium from clinical isolates in Korea. Arch Pharm Res 30, 329–336 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02977614
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02977614