Characteristics of Meropenem Heteroresistance in Klebsiella Pneumoniae Carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Clinical Isolates of K. Pneumoniae

Overview

Journal J Clin Microbiol

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2010 May 28

PMID 20504985

Citations 34

Authors

Spyros Pournaras

Ioulia Kristo

Georgia Vrioni

Alexandros Ikonomidis

Aggeliki Poulou

Dimitra Petropoulou

Athanassios Tsakris

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Meropenem heteroresistance was investigated in six apparently meropenem-susceptible, Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-KP) clinical isolates, compared with that in carbapenemase-negative, meropenem-susceptible controls. In population analyses, the KPC-KP isolates grew at meropenem concentrations of 64 to 256 microg/ml. Heteroresistant colonies had significantly elevated expression of the bla(KPC) gene compared with the native populations but did not retain heteroresistance when subcultured in drug-free media. Time-kill assays indicated that meropenem alone was not bactericidal against KPC-KP but efficiently killed the control strains.

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