In vitro susceptibility of carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae to colistin: A hope at present
Care, Teaching and Referral Hospital in North India over a 3 year period from January 2011 to December 2013. Consecutive, non repetitive carbapenem resistant isolates of Escherichia coli and K. pneumoniae isolated from patients with clinically diagnosed bloodstream infections were included in the study. The resistance to carbapenems was detected by the disk diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays using ertapenem, meropenem and imipenem disks (HiMedia, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) and Etests (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) respectively, and interpreted as per the CLSI 2012 recommendations.[3] The presence of carbapenemase genes (NDM 1, KPC, IMP, VIM, OXA 48 and OXA 181) was detected using previously published primers and standardised protocol with single polymerase chain reaction for each gene.[4 7] The in vitro activity of colistin against these CRE isolates was determined by Etests (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) according to the manufacturer's guidelines. The MICs were interpreted following the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Criteria =2 and =4 mg/ml for susceptible and resistant, respectively)[8] Dear Editor,
Indian journal of medical microbiology