Worrisome trends in rising minimum inhibitory concentration values of antibiotics against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus – Insights from a tertiary care center, South India

AbstractIntroductionAppearance of isolated reports of resistance to anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) drugs is worrisome underscoring the need to continuously monitor the susceptibility of clinical MRSA isolates to these drugs. Hence, the present study is conducted to determine the susceptibility of MRSA isolates to various classes of anti-MRSA drugs such as vancomycin (glycopeptide), daptomycin (lipopeptide), tigecycline (glycylcycline), and linezolid (oxazolidinone) to determine the MIC50 and MIC90 values, and to observe MIC creep over a three year period, if any, with respect to these drugs.MethodsA total of 200 isolates of MRSA obtained from clinical specimens were included. MIC was determined by E-test for anti-MRSA antibiotics vancomycin, linezolid, daptomycin, and tigecycline. Non-parametric methods (Kruskal–Wallis and Chi-square test) were used to assess MIC trends over time. In addition, MIC50 and MIC90 values were also calculated.ResultsNo isolate was found resistant to vancomycin, daptomycin, or linezolid; five isolates were resistant to tigecycline. Seven VISA isolates were encountered with the MIC value for vancomycin of 4μg/mL. MIC values for vancomycin, tigecycline, linezolid showed a definite increase over a 3-year period which was statistically significant with p-values