Detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis.

To determine whether methods suggested for detecting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus apply equally to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis, 135 S. epidermidis isolates were tested by the Vitek AMS gram-positive susceptibility card (Vitek Systems, Inc., Hazelwood, Mo.) and by modifications of agar screen, disk diffusion, and microdilution methods. Modifications included 24- versus 48-h incubation, unsupplemented versus 2% NaCl-supplemented broth, and standard versus direct inoculum. At 24 h, the highest number of resistant strains, 59, was detected by oxacillin (1 microgram) disk diffusion. At 48 h, three additional strains were judged resistant. With one exception, results for oxacillin disk diffusion and agar screen were equivalent at 24 and 48 h. Vitek detected 50 resistant strains. Significantly fewer resistant strains were detected at 24 h by methicillin disk diffusion (5 micrograms) and methicillin microdilution with 2% NaCl. For oxacillin microdilution, neither 2% NaCl supplementation nor the method of inoculum preparation significantly affected the results. Oxacillin microdilution with cation- rather than non-cation-supplemented broth detected significantly fewer (n = 33) resistant strains at 24 h; 51 were resistant at 48 h. To detect methicillin-resistant S. epidermidis, a direct inoculum with either 24-h oxacillin disk diffusion and reincubation of intermediate strains for an additional 24 h or 24-h oxacillin agar screen and reincubation of strains with no growth for a total of 48 h is recommended.