ABSTRACT
Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] is a frequent cause of infections in children. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of nasal colonization of S. aureus in children and detection of inducible clindamycin resistance [ICR] by disk approximation test [D-test]. This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Hamedan from 2007 to 2008. 520 nasal swabs were obtained from children under 12 years of age at the time of admission and 287 swabs at the time of discharge. Antibiogram was performed by method of disk diffusion for oxacillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, cefazolin and vancomycin as well as D-test. Chi-square test was applied for statistical analysis. Out of 520 patients, 118 [22.3%] were colonized with S. aureus as community-acquired [CA-S. aureus]. Of 287 patients, 64 [22.3%] were colonized with isolates of S. aureus at discharge time. Of these 64 patients, 32 cases were colonized with hospital acquired [HA-S. aureus] isolates after admission. Only one CA-MRSA isolate was resistant to clindamycin, 5% of 118 CA-S. aureus isolates and 6.3% of HA-S. aureus isolates had inducible clindamycin resistance [D-test]. Also 37.5% of CA-MRSA isolates at the time of admission and 22.2% of HA-MRSA isolates at discharge had positive D-test. We emphasize that D-test should be used routinely and clindamycin should not be used in patients with infections caused by inducible resistant S. aureus