Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo (Jun 2015)

MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE PATTERN OF SEVEN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF Nocardia spp. IN BRAZIL

  • Larissa Anuska Zeni CONDAS,
  • Márcio Garcia RIBEIRO,
  • Marisol Domingues MURO,
  • Agueda Palmira Castagna de VARGAS,
  • Tetsuhiro MATSUZAWA,
  • Katsukiyo YAZAWA,
  • Amanda Keller SIQUEIRA,
  • Tatiana SALERNO,
  • Gustavo Henrique Batista LARA,
  • Rafaela Mastrangelo RISSETI,
  • Karen Spadari FERREIRA,
  • Tohru GONOI

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46652015000300012
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 57, no. 3
pp. 251 – 256

Abstract

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Nocardia is a ubiquitous microorganism related to pyogranulomatous infection, which is difficult to treat in humans and animals. The occurrence of the disease is on the rise in many countries due to an increase in immunosuppressive diseases and treatments. This report of cases from Brazil presents the genotypic characterization and the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern using the disk-diffusion method and inhibitory minimal concentration with E-test® strips. In summary, this report focuses on infections in young adult men, of which three cases were cutaneous, two pulmonary, one neurological and one systemic. The pulmonary, neurological and systemic cases were attributed to immunosuppressive diseases or treatments. Sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA segments (1491 bp) identified four isolates of Nocardia farcinica, two isolates of Nocardia nova and one isolate of Nocardia asiatica. N. farcinica was involved in two cutaneous, one systemic and other pulmonary cases; N. nova was involved in one neurological and one pulmonary case; and Nocardia asiatica in one cutaneous case. The disk-diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that the most effective antimicrobials were amikacin (100%), amoxicillin/clavulanate (100%), cephalexin (100%) and ceftiofur (100%), while isolates had presented most resistance to gentamicin (43%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (43%) and ampicillin (29%). However, on the inhibitory minimal concentration test (MIC test), only one of the four isolates of Nocardia farcinica was resistant to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim.

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