Evaluación de cuatro métodos para la detección de Staphylococcus aureus meticilino-resistente de muestras clínicas en un hospital regional

objetive: to estimate the prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) in clinical isolates and to compare different methods for detection of mrsa in a lab with limited available personnel and resources. material and methods: 140 staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from patients in several departments were assayed for β-lactamase production, mic-vitek 2 oxacillin, chromid mrsa, disk diffusion in agar for cefoxitin 30 μg and pbp2a detection. the results of conventional tests were compared with the "gold standard" pcr test for meca gene. cohen′s kappa index was also calculated in order to evaluate the intra assay agreement between the used methods. results: the found prevalence was 90.7%. sensitivity and specificity were: disk diffusion for cefoxitin 97 and 92% respectively, mic vitek 2-xl 97 and 69%, chromoid mrsa 97 and 85%, and pbp2a detection 98 and 100%. conclusions: all methods are very good for detecting mrsa, choosing a method to use will depend on each laboratory infrastructure.