same-day detection of methicillin resistance in staphylococcus aureus isolates by staresmet® kit

Background: staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of hospital-acquired infections. the most important issue with s. aureus is that the isolates are getting increasingly methicillin-resistant. rapid differentiation between methicillin-resistant and methicillin susceptible s. aureus species is necessary to optimize treatment and minimize costs. objectives: the current study aimed at evaluating the staresmet® kit for rapid detection of methicillin resistance in s. aureus isolates. methods: a total of 217 methicillin-resistant s. aureus (mrsa) and 252 methicillin-susceptible s. aureus (mssa) isolates were tested using the staresmet® kit. the test was performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. results: the kit identified the mrsa isolates with 100% accuracy, and found that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (mics) was > 32 μg/ml cefoxitin for 133 of the isolates, 32 μg/ml cefoxitin for 49, 16 μg/ml cefoxitin for 8, and 8 μg/ml cefoxitin for 11 of the isolates. likewise, all 177 mssa isolates were correctly identified using the kit, and the mics against them were determined within the range of 1 to 4 μg/ml cefoxitin. the mic of cefoxitin can be determined in 6 hours using the staresmet® kit. conclusions: the obtained results indicated that the staresmet® kit allowed the detection of mrsa isolates rapidly and reliably, and could be a valuable tool for microbiology laboratories with limited facilities. authors believed that the routine use of this timesaving and easy-to-use test contributes to rapid clinical diagnoses and treatments.