Reporting antimicrobial susceptibilities and resistance phenotypes in Acinetobacter spp: a nationwide proficiency study.

Objectives: To evaluate the proficiency of Spanish microbiology laboratories with respect to the antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of Acinetobacter spp. Methods: Eight Acinetobacter spp. with different resistance mechanisms were sent to 48 Spanish centres which were asked to report: (i) the AST system used; (ii) MICs; (iii) breakpoints used (CLSI versus EUCAST); (iv) clinical category; and (v) resistance mechanisms inferred. Minor, major and very major errors (mE, ME and VME, respectively) were determined. Results: The greatest percentages of discrepancies were: (i) by AST method: 18.5% Etest, 14.3% Vitek 2 and Sensititre; (ii) by breakpoints: 20.5% (CLSI) and 10.8% (EUCAST); and (iii) by antimicrobial agent: ampicillin/sulbactam (56.2% CLSI), minocycline (40.7% CLSI), tobramycin (38.7% CLSI, 16.8% EUCAST), imipenem (27.8% CLSI, 30.0% EUCAST) and meropenem (25.4% CLSI, 20.8% EUCAST). Categorical error rates: (i) by AST method ranged from 30.0% (Phoenix) to 100% (Sensititre and disc diffusion) for mE, 0.0% (Etest, Sensititre, disc diffusion) to 40% (Phoenix) for ME, and 0.0% (Sensititre and disc diffusion) to 30% (Phoenix) for VME; (ii) by breakpoints: mE (80.1% CLSI, 58.4% EUCAST), ME (3.5% CLSI, 12.4% EUCAST) and VME (16.4% CLSI, 29.2% EUCAST); and (iii) by antimicrobial agent: mE (100% levofloxacin/CLSI, 100% levofloxacin and meropenem/EUCAST), ME (35.3% colistin/CLSI, 25.0% colistin/EUCAST) and VME (64.7% colistin/CLSI, 86.7% gentamicin/EUCAST). Conclusions: Clinical microbiology laboratories must improve their ability to determine antimicrobial susceptibilities of Acinetobacter spp. isolates. Higher discrepancies using CLSI when compared with EUCAST are mainly due to mE and to a much lesser extent to ME or VME.

Reduced susceptibility to biocides in Acinetobacter baumannii: association with resistance to antimicrobials, epidemiological behaviour, biological cost and effect on the expression of genes encoding porins and efflux pumps.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to analyse whether there is an association between reduced susceptibility to biocides in Acinetobacter baumannii and (i) antimicrobial resistance (co-resistance), (ii) prevalent (epidemic) clones, (iii) changes in the fitness or (iv) expression of genes related to efflux pumps and porins. METHODS: Susceptibility to biocides and antimicrobials was determined in 49 clonally unrelated isolates of A. baumannii. Biological cost, in terms of mean generation time, was determined by spectrophotometry. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR was used to determine the relative expression of genes encoding several efflux pumps and porins. RESULTS: Reduced susceptibility to chlorhexidine digluconate, benzalkonium chloride and Irgasan(®) was associated with resistance to aminoglycosides, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin (P < 0.05). The MICs of carbapenems, aminoglycosides, doxycycline and ciprofloxacin for isolate Ab70 (epidemic clone) exposed to these biocides increased by ≥2 dilutions. Reduced susceptibility to Orsan(®) was more frequent among prevalent clones than non-prevalent clones (P < 0.05). Mean generation times for Ab70 before and after exposure to benzalkonium chloride were 57.8 and 78.1 min, respectively (P = 0.02). Relative expression of abeS and adeB was increased in Ab46 and Ab70 after exposure to chlorhexidine digluconate, but was decreased for ompA and carO after exposure to Irgasan(®). CONCLUSIONS: Reduced susceptibility to biocides is associated with co-resistance to carbapenems, aminoglycosides, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin. Reduced susceptibility to Orsan(®) may be a marker of prevalent clones. Acquisition of reduced susceptibility to benzalkonium chloride has a biological cost. Exposure to biocides affects the relative expression of genes related to some efflux pump genes (increased expression) or porins (reduced expression).

Prevalence and analysis of microbiological factors associated with phenotypic heterogeneous resistance to carbapenems in Acinetobacter baumannii.

The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of Acinetobacter baumannii with phenotypic heterogeneous resistance (PHR) to carbapenems (colonies inside the halo of inhibition) and to analyse its association with several microbiological variables. Acinetobacter baumannii isolates collected in Spain were used to analyse: (i) minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of carbapenems; (ii) heteroresistance to carbapenems; (iii) genes encoding ß-lactamases (bla genes); (iv) insertion sequences; and (v) inactivation of genes encoding porins (CarO, OprD and Omp33-36) and genes associated with the AdeABC efflux system (adeB, adeR and adeS). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification was used for gene detection. The rate of PHR was 20% to imipenem and 24% to meropenem. Susceptibility to imipenem was observed in 39% of PHR isolates. MICs of carbapenems for colonies were similar (± 1 log(2) dilution) to those of their parental isolates. These colonies growing inside the inhibition halo also reproduced the PHR to carbapenems. Differences observed between PHR isolates and non-PHR isolates were: bla(OXA-58-like), 57% vs. 0%; oprD-like, 96% vs. 56%; adeB, 89% vs. 94%; adeR, 82% vs. 94%; adeS, 82% vs. 94%; ISAba2, 61% vs. 31%; and ISAba3, 57% vs. 0%. No interruption of genes encoding porins or the efflux-related genes (adeB, adeR and adeS) was observed. In conclusion, A. baumannii strains with PHR to carbapenems are widespread in Spain. This phenotype is present in carbapenem-susceptible isolates as well as those that are not susceptible to carbapenems. Heteroresistance cannot explain the PHR to carbapenems, which appears to relate more to persistence or tolerance to carbapenems. bla(OXA-58-like), bla(OXA-51-like), ISAba2 and ISAba3 are associated with PHR to carbapenems. Inactivation of genes encoding porins or genes related to AdeABC is infrequent.