TY - JOUR AU - Karuppiah, Ponmurugan AU - Raja, Suresh S. S. AU - Poyil, Muhammad Musthafa PY - 2022/05/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Microbiological profile of diabetic foot infections and the detection of mecA gene in predominant Staphylococcus aureus JF - Universa Medicina JA - Univ Med VL - 41 IS - 2 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.18051/UnivMed.2022.v41.121-128 UR - https://univmed.org/ejurnal/index.php/medicina/article/view/1291 SP - 121-128 AB - <p><strong>BACKGROUND</strong><br />Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious health problem that is rapidly expanding worldwide. <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> is a pathogenic bacterium which has a number of drug resistant strains. Different variants of this pathogen have been isolated from patients with diabetic foot ulcers - in persons having uncontrolled blood sugar level - all over the world, resulting in high rates of morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of drug resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> in diabetic foot infections (DFIs). <br /><br /><strong>METHODS</strong> <br />An epidemiological survey was conducted and 300 pus samples were collected from wounds, abscesses, skin and soft tissue lesions of patients having type II diabetes with foot ulcer infections at a tertiary care hospital. Further, the antibacterial susceptibility patterns of all the isolated <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> were determined against methicillin, oxacillin, vancomycin and novobiocin.</p><p><strong>RESULTS</strong> <br />Pathogenic bacterial species including coagulase positive and coagulase negative <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em>, <em>Escherichia coli, Klebsiella</em> sp., <em>Proteus</em> sp.,<em> Pseudomonas</em> sp., and <em>Citrobacter</em> sp. were identified, among which Staphylococcus was the main genus identified. A total of 13 (4.3%) isolates of coagulase positive <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> were resistant to methicillin. Using PCR, 7 (53.8%) staphylococcal isolates were detected with the <em>mec</em>A gene.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION</strong><br /><em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> is the most common cause of DFIs. This study demonstrates that about 53.8% of all methicillin resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> isolates have <em>mec</em>A genes. Such a finding is the primary step in understanding and tackling the resistance mechanism.</p> ER -