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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2008, p. 2950-2954, Vol. 46, No. 9
0095-1137/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.00582-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Anti-Infective Research Laboratory, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan,1 Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center, Detroit, Michigan 48201, and JMI Laboratories, North Liberty, Iowa2
Received 26 March 2008/ Returned for modification 5 May 2008/ Accepted 9 July 2008
We screened for heteroresistant, vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) among clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus collected from three hospitals (two urban teaching hospitals and one community hospital) in the Detroit metropolitan area over a 22-year period. The Macro Etest method was used to screen all available isolates. Confirmation of hVISA-positive screens were confirmed by population-area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) analysis. A total of 1,499 isolates revealed hVISA/VISA rates of 2.2/0.4% (n = 225; 1986 to 1993), 7.6/2.3% (n = 356; 1994 to 2002), and 8.3/0.3% (n = 917; 2003 to 2007). Population-AUC analysis confirmed 92.6% of the hVISA-positive strains determined by the Macro Etest method. For the isolates with known sources (1,208), the predominant source of hVISA was blood (60%), followed by lung (21%), skin and wound infections (14%), abscess (1%), and other (4%). The percentage of hVISA-positive strains appeared to increase as a function of the vancomycin MIC. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing revealed that the majority (56.9%) of the hVISA strains were SCCmec type II and 39.4% were type IV; the majority of these strains were collected from 2000 to 2007. Our data indicate that the prevalence of hVISA may be increasing. Based on the association of vancomycin treatment failure in patients with hVISA, surveillance of hVISA strains is warranted.
Published ahead of print on 16 July 2008.
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