The emergence of Staphylococcus strains resistant to methicillin
occurred shortly after the introduction of methicillin into clinical use .
Resistance to methicillin in clinical isolates of Staphylococci has been
explained by the production of a characteristic penicillin-binding protein
(PBP) , designated PBP2a, that has a decreased binding affinity for b-lactam
antibiotics, the gene mec-A encoding PBP2a was cloned and is distributed
among methicillin- resistant but not methicillin-susceptible populations of S.
aureus. Recently, high prevalence of methicillin resistance has been noticed
in the clinical isolates of coagulase-negative Staphylococci (CNS) which,
besides MRSA( Methicillin- Resistant -Staphylococcus aureus), also have
been recognized as important nosocomial pathogens .
Detection of the mec-A using PCR may provide a sensitive method for
identifying methicillin resistant Staphylococci .
In this study, overall 268 wound swabs in which 107 cases (40%) were
Staphylococcus aureus and 10 cases (3.7%) were coagulase negative
Staphylococcus and the rest of them were other microorganisms were
examined .
After the extraction of DNA , PCR was carried out using specific primers.
The results indicated that the mec-A was present in 24 cases ( 9% ) . In 8
cases (34%) Staphylococcus aureus ,3 cases (12%) coagulase negative
Staphylococci , the others were related to another microorgamisms that
probably were contaminated by Staphylococcus species.
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