Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the causal agent of multiple
nosocomial infections worldwide, including
catheter-associated
bacteremia in
hemodialysis patients. The purposes of this work were to genetically characterize a group of MRSA isolates from
catheter-related infections of ambulatory Mexican
hemodialysis patients and to determine whether the strains are the same as those carried by the patients in their anterior nares. Sixteen pairs of MRSA isolates from the
catheter (cat) and anterior nares (N) of
hemodialysis patients were compared using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), PCR detection of adhesion genes and other virulence markers, and an antibiogram. Three pairs of N/cat MRSA isolates (18.7 %) with identical resistograms also showed the same combination of PCR-detected markers and PFGE pattern; one additional pair showed only an identical electrophoretic PFGE pattern. Of the MRSA isolates, 75 % (n = 24) were resistant to ≥ 7
antibiotics, 4 isolates were resistant to 11
antibiotics, and 7 isolates were resistant to the 12
antibiotics tested. The most frequent virulence marker combination found was spa, clfA, clfB, cna,
bbp, ebps, map/eap, sdrC, sdrD, sdrE, ica, agr (65.6 %, n = 21). The SCCmec alleles of the 32 MRSA isolates were IV (n = 20), I (n = 7), II (n = 4), and V (n = 1), and no SCCmec type III MRSA was found. The genotypic characterization of the MRSA isolates studied in this work will contribute to a better understanding of the virulence gene makeup of
catheter-colonizing S. aureus strains and will help to lower the
infection risk in these patients.