Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jan;44(1):229-31.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.44.1.229-231.2006.

Does nasal cocolonization by methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus strains occur frequently enough to represent a risk of false-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus determinations by molecular methods?

Karsten Becker  1 , Isabelle Pagnier, Brigitte Schuhen, Frauke Wenzelburger, Alexander W Friedrich, Frank Kipp, Georg Peters, Christof von Eiff
Affiliations

Does nasal cocolonization by methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus strains occur frequently enough to represent a risk of false-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus determinations by molecular methods?

Karsten Becker et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2006 Jan.

Abstract

By analyzing the colonization of the anterior nares in cardiothoracic surgery patients on admission, nasal cocolonization by methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci was detected in 8/235 (3.4%) specimens. Consequently, in a low-methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) setting, a molecular MRSA screening test targeting the mecA gene and an S. aureus-specific gene in parallel and applied directly to clinical specimens would be associated with an unacceptable positive predictive value of about 40%.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Becker, K., A. W. Friedrich, G. Lubritz, M. Weilert, G. Peters, and C. von Eiff. 2003. Prevalence of genes encoding pyrogenic toxin superantigens and exfoliative toxins among strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from blood and nasal specimens. J. Clin. Microbiol. 41:1434-1439. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker, K., D. Harmsen, A. Mellmann, C. Meier, P. Schumann, G. Peters, and C. von Eiff. 2004. Development and evaluation of a quality-controlled ribosomal sequence database for 16S ribosomal DNA-based identification of Staphylococcus species. J. Clin. Microbiol. 42:4988-4995. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker, K., C. von Eiff, B. Keller, M. Brück, J. Etienne, and G. Peters. 2005. Thermonuclease gene as a target for specific identification of Staphylococcus intermedius isolates: use of a PCR-DNA enzyme immunoassay. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 51:237-244. - PubMed
    1. Berger-Bächi, B., and S. Rohrer. 2002. Factors influencing methicillin resistance in staphylococci. Arch. Microbiol. 178:165-171. - PubMed
    1. Brakstad, O. G., K. Aasbakk, and J. A. Maeland. 1992. Detection of Staphylococcus aureus by polymerase chain reaction amplification of the nuc gene. J. Clin. Microbiol. 30:1654-1660. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms