title: High proportion of wrongly identified methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriers by use of a rapid commercial PCR assay due to presence of staphylococcal cassette chromosome element lacking the mecA gene.
abstract: During a 9-month period, 217 patients were newly diagnosed as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriers by using a commercial rapid PCR-based test (GeneXpert). However, no MRSA was recovered by culturing the second swab in 61 of these patients. Further analyses showed that 28 (12.9%) of the patients harbored S. aureus isolates with a staphylococcal cassette chromosome element lacking the mecA gene and were thus incorrectly determined to be MRSA carriers.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Preventive Medicine Service, Institute of Microbiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland. dominique.blanc@chuv.ch
authors.forename: Dominique S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Blanc
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Basset
authors.forename: Immaculée
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nahimana-Tessemo
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jaton
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Greub
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zanetti
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002353:Carrier State / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D046915:Penicillin-Binding Proteins; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D046915:Penicillin-Binding Proteins; C487789:mecA protein, Staphylococcus aureus