Antibiotic Susceptibility in Enterococci Isolated from Patients in Kerman, Southeastern Iran

Background: enterococci faecalis are predominating speciesof enterococci causing nosocomial infections. acquisition ofresistance to antibacterial agents, and ability to transfer the resistantgenes made them clinically important. this study wasperformed to determine the frequency of isolation of differentspecies of enterococci, and the antibacterial resistance patternof the isolated species.methods: enterococcal species were isolated from clinicalsamples. in vitro susceptibility of the isolates to 10 antibacterialagents was tested by standard methods and ~-iactamase productionwas detected using starch-iodide method.results: 100 enterococci were isolated from 585 differentclinical samples. 73% of the isolates were e. faecalis. ]3% e.faecium and 14% which were not identified as either one,were regarded as other enterococcal species. highest rate ofresistance (98% or more) was found for oxacillin and penicillinwhile vancomycin and chloramphenicol were among themost active agents. resistance to antibacterial agents wasmore common for e. [aecium and p-iactamase production wasfound in 8]% of the isolates.conclusion: e. faecalis was the dominant species, with thehigher rate of p-iactamase production. e. [aecium was moreresistant to antibacterial agents as compared to other isolates.80% of the isolates had multiple drug resistance phenotypes(mdr). low-level resistance to vancomycin (intermediatereaction in disk diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentrationsrange (greater than )4-16 ( mu)g.ml ) and presence of mdr isolatesis very important and should be considered as an danger alarmfor serious enterococcal infections.