Comparison Between Phenotypic And Genotypic Methods For Identification of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection is a major health problem because it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in large teaching hospitals as well as community hospitals, and infections caused by them require specialized chemotherapy. Mec A gene is the gene encoding PBP2a which is an additional PBP found in methicillin-resistant staphylococci. Detection of mec A gene by PCR or DNA hybridization is useful in _., diagnosis of MRSA and evaluation of phenotypic methods used in detection of MRSA. The aim of this work is detection of MRSA strains in B nha University Hospital and studying the role of PCR in diagnosis of MRSA. This work was . carried out in Microbiology Department of Benha Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University from April2001 to April 2002. In this study, 230 pus samples were collected using sterile cotton swabs from patients with pyogenic infections divided in 2 groups: