title: Genetic correlation of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains from carriers and from patients with clinical infection in one region of Korea.
abstract: Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is an increasingly common worldwide and colonizing S. aureus strains may serve as the causative pathogen for overt clinical infections. This study was performed to determine whether the pathogenic CA-MRSA isolate in clinical infections was genetically related to the MRSA isolates in community carriers. We prospectively collected a total of 42 CA-MRSA isolates (23 clinical infection isolates and 19 colonization isolates) in a local region of Korea. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests, staphylococcal toxin assays, SCCmec typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and spa (staphylococcal protein A) typing were performed with all isolates. Thirty-four (81%) of 42 CA-MRSA isolates belonged to sequence type (ST) 72 in the MLST analysis. The distribution of STs did not differ significantly between colonization and clinical infection isolates (89.5% [17/19] vs. 73.9% [17/23], P=0.26). Among the ST72-MRSA isolates, spa type t664 (18, 52.9%) and t324 (8, 23.5%) were common in both groups. This study demonstrates that the community-associated MRSA strains from patients with clinical infections are closely related to the strains found in carriers from one local community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea. ttezebae@gmail.com
authors.forename: In-Gyu
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Jae Seok
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sunjoo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang Taek
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: Chulhun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Eun-Yup
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*