Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Maria Miragaia.
We evaluated three multilocus sequence typing (MLST) schemes for Staphylococcus epidermidis and selected the seven most discriminatory loci for the formation of a new, more powerful MLST scheme. This improved scheme gave 31 sequence types (STs) and 5 clonal complexes (CCs), whereas the other schemes delineate 16 to 24 STs and 1 to 3 CCs.
Denmark and Iceland are countries where the frequency of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is very low due to strict infection control and restrictive antibiotic use policies. In contrast, methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (MRSE) continues to be isolated as a nosocomial pathogen. The molecular typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of 136 MRSE isolates from five hospitals in Denmark and 94 MRSE isolates from one hospital in Iceland collected in 1997 and 1998 defined 40 different patterns. Closely related PFGE types were found in isolates recovered in Iceland, Denmark, Mexico, Uruguay, Greece, and Cape Verde, evidencing for the first time the geographic clonal dissemination of MRSE strains. The large majority (87.4%) of the MRSE isolates studied were multiresistant.