The Seraph®-100 Microbind Affinity Blood Filter Does Not Affect Vancomycin, Tacrolimus, and Mycophenolic Acid Plasma Concentrations.

Extracorporeal blood purification is considered an adjunct therapy in critically ill patients with life-threatening conditions such as sepsis and septic shock. It consists of cytokine removal, removal of endotoxins, a combination of both, or the removal of pathogens themselves. The latter technique was introduced for clinical application very recently. This case study describes a case of a 69-year-old female lung transplant recipient patient with a persistent VV-ECMO-related septic deep vein thrombosis with continuous renal replacement therapy-dependent acute kidney injury initiated on the Seraph®-100 Microbind Affinity Filter in order to control the persistent bacteraemia with coagulase-negative staphylococci. Drug plasma concentrations (vancomycin, tacrolimus, and mycophenolic acid) were measured before and after the device to calculate absorber-related drug clearance.

Antibiotics Removal by Continuous Venovenous Hemofiltration with a Novel Asymmetric Triacetate Membrane Hemofilter: An in vitro Study.

INTRODUCTION: Continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRTs) are essential in the treatment of critically ill patients with acute kidney injury and are also discussed as a supporting sepsis therapy. CRRT can affect antibiotics plasma concentrations. OBJECTIVE: The effect of continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH) with an asymmetric triacetate (ATA) membrane hemofilter on concentrations of antibiotics with low (meropenem), medium (vancomycin), and high (daptomycin) protein binding (PB) was investigated. METHODS: 1 L human whole blood supplemented with antibiotics was recirculated and filtrated for 6 h in vitro. Clearances and sieving coefficients (SC) were determined from antibiotics concentrations measured at filter inlet, outlet, and filtrate side. Reservoir concentration data were fitted using a first-order kinetic model. RESULTS: Meropenem and vancomycin concentrations decreased to 5-10% of the initial plasma level, while only 50% of daptomycin were removed. Clearances and SCs were (10.8 [10.8-17.4] mL/min, SC = 0.72 [0.72-1.16]) for meropenem, (13.4 [12.3-13.7] mL/min, 0.89 [0.82-0.92]) for vancomycin, and (2.1 [1.8-2.1] mL/min, 0.14 [0.12-0.14]) for daptomycin. Removal by adsorption was negligible. CONCLUSIONS: The clearances and SCs presented are comparable with findings of other authors. Meropenem and vancomycin, which exhibit low and medium PB, respectively, were strongly removed, while considerably less daptomycin was removed because of its high PB. Our results suggest that in clinical use of the tested antibiotics during CRRT with the ATA hemofilter, the same factors have to be considered for determining the dosing strategy as with filters with other commonly applied membrane materials.

QuEChERS and 96-well plate solid phase extraction for determination of vancomycin and norvancomycin in fish meat by UPLC-MS/MS.

Vancomycin and norvancomycin are glycopeptide antibiotics for gram-positive bacteria infection, but indiscriminately used in aquaculture. In this study, a QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe)/96-well solid-phase extraction (SPE) plate method was used to extract vancomycin and norvancomycin in fish meat samples, and the drugs were further analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The parameters, such as the sorbent of cation exchange resin, the proportion of acetonitrile (15%) in extractant, the mobile phase of water (0.1% formic acid)/acetonitrile, were optimized. The method was validated in terms of linearity (0.9990-0.9994), LOD (0.51 µg·kg-1), LOQ (1.73 µg·kg-1), intra-dayprecision (<5.19%), inter-day precision (<6.30%), and recovery (86.7-98.6%). Finally, the method was successfully applied to contaminated and randomly collected samples. The results indicated that the proposed method meet the daily monitoring requirements for vancomycin and norvancomycin.

Simultaneous separation and determination of vancomycin and its crystalline degradation products in human serum by ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method and its application in therapeutic drug monitoring.

A rapid and simple ultra high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the simultaneous separation and determination of vancomycin and its crystalline degradation products in human serum. Vancomycin and two isomers of the degradants were extracted from human serum with a protein precipitation method. The compounds were separated on an Acquity BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm) eluted with a gradient mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase. Norvancomycin was used as the internal standard. The linear ranges of vancomycin and two degradant isomers were 1.057-105.7, 0.1437-14.37, and 0.2540-25.40 µg/mL, respectively. The established methods were validated and successfully applied to a therapeutic drug monitoring study of vancomycin in patients with renal insufficiency.

Surface Design of Enantiomeric HPLC Separation on Vancomycin and Teicoplanin-Based Stationary Phases, a Tool for Chiral Recognition of Model ß-Blockers.

A quality-by-design approach was adopted for enantioseparation of atenolol on Vancomycin and Teicoplanin-based chiral stationary phases using reversed phase (RP) mode and polar ionic mode (PIM), respectively to account for major forces involved in enantiorecognition of ß-blockers on macrocyclics. A fractional factorial screening design for the two modes; followed by a central composite optimization design and regression analysis were able to point out critical factors and chromatographic responses and robust surface of the design. Within the studied range of flow the optimal was 0.3 mL/min for Chirobiotic T and 1 mL/min for Chirobiotic V. In PIM, a composition of 100% methanol was mandatory to compromise between best separation and least retention with equal amounts of the acid and base modifiers for enantiomers of atenolol, as model drug in addition to metoprolol and pindolol as structurally related compounds for possible extrapolation of results on members of the same class. However, in RP mode, only triethylamine acetate was needed as buffer for atenolol enantiomers. Chiral recognition of atenolol in both elution modes, further confirmed via extrapolation of the models on the two other ß-blockers showed that ionic interactions rather than any other forces governed chiral recognition on the two macrocyclic stationary phases in both modes.

Enantioseparation of chiral pharmaceuticals by vancomycin-bonded stationary phase and analysis of chiral recognition mechanism.

The drug chirality is attracting increasing attention because of different biological activities, metabolic pathways, and toxicities of chiral enantiomers. The chiral separation has been a great challenge. Optimized high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods based on vancomycin chiral stationary phase (CSP) were developed for the enantioseparation of propranolol, atenolol, metoprolol, venlafaxine, fluoxetine, and amlodipine. The retention and enantioseparation properties of these analytes were investigated in the variety of mobile phase additives, flow rate, and column temperature. As a result, the optimal chromatographic condition was achieved using methanol as a main mobile phase with triethylamine (TEA) and glacial acetic acid (HOAc) added as modifiers in a volume ratio of 0.01% at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/minute and at a column temperature of 5°C. The thermodynamic parameters (eg, ΔH, ΔΔH, and ΔΔS) from linear van 't Hoff plots revealed that the retention of investigated pharmaceuticals on vancomycin CSP was an exothermic process. The nonlinear behavior of lnk' against 1/T for propranolol, atenolol, and metoprolol suggested the presence of multiple binding mechanisms for these analytes on CSP with variation of temperature. The simulated interaction processes between vancomycin and pharmaceutical enantiomers using molecular docking technique and binding energy calculations indicated that the calculated magnitudes of steady combination energy (ΔG) coincided with experimental elution order for most of these enantiomers.

Light-assisted preparation of vancomycin chiral stationary phase based on diazotized silica and its enantioseparation evaluation by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Owing to enantiomers' identical physical and chemical properties, separation work in the chiral environments is still a great challenge.and chemical properties. Chromatographic techniques employing chiral stationary phases (CSPs) have been developed as powerful tools for the chiral analysis and preparation of pure enantiomers. Here we report a facile synthesis of vancomycin stationary phase based on diazotized silica. Monodisperse silica particles were synthesized by a modified Stöber method. The obtained silica particles were modified by self-assembly photosensitive diazoresin (DR) and vancomycin on the surface. After treatment with UV light, the ionic bonding was converted into covalent bonding through a unique photochemistry reaction of DR. Baseline separation of chiral drugs was achieved by using the vancomycin@SiO2 particles as packing materials in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effects of separation parameters including elution mode, flow rate and analyte mass on the enantioselectivity of the CSP were investigated in detail. Due to the replacement of highly toxic and moisture sensitive silane agent by water soluble non-toxic DR in the modification of silica microspheres, this method provides a green and easy way to manufacture packing materials for chromatography applications.

Activity of linezolid and daptomycin against methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci with increased MIC for vancomycin isolated from blood cultures in pediatric patients.

We evaluated minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) for vancomycin, daptomycin, and linezolid in methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS). Minimal inhibitory concentration of 2-4 mg/l for vancomycin was observed in 16% of strains, and among them 19% had MIC at breakpoint for daptomycin or linezolid. Among strains completely susceptible to vancomycin, 16% had MIC at breakpoint for daptomycin and 11% had for linezolid. This large proportion of pathogens with MIC around the breakpoint suggests a possible risk of treatment failure with these drugs. This phenomenon is worth further and constant monitoring.

Identifying producers of antibacterial compounds by screening for antibiotic resistance.

Microbially derived natural products are major sources of antibiotics and other medicines, but discovering new antibiotic scaffolds and increasing the chemical diversity of existing ones are formidable challenges. We have designed a screen to exploit the self-protection mechanism of antibiotic producers to enrich microbial libraries for producers of selected antibiotic scaffolds. Using resistance as a discriminating criterion we increased the discovery rate of producers of both glycopeptide and ansamycin antibacterial compounds by several orders of magnitude in comparison with historical hit rates. Applying a phylogeny-based screening filter for biosynthetic genes enabled the binning of producers of distinct scaffolds and resulted in the discovery of a glycopeptide antibacterial compound, pekiskomycin, with an unusual peptide scaffold. This strategy provides a means to readily sample the chemical diversity available in microbes and offers an efficient strategy for rapid discovery of microbial natural products and their associated biosynthetic enzymes.

Molecular characterization of vanA-containing Enterococcus from migratory birds: song thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) were detected in two faecal samples (1.3%) of song thrush in Portugal. vanA isolates showed high level vancomycin/teicoplanin resistance, as well as resistance to ciprofloxacin, quinupristin-dalfopristin and cloranfenicol. Thrush can be a reservoir of VRE and transmit these resistant bacteria to other animals including humans.

Elimination of teicoplanin by adsorption to the filter membrane during haemodiafiltration: screening experiments for linezolid, teicoplanin and vancomycin followed by in vitro haemodiafiltration models for teicoplanin.

Pharmaceutical agents directed against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be eliminated during haemodiafiltration, not only by diffusion and ultrafiltration, but also by adsorption onto haemofilters. The latter may be affected by the binding of agents to serum albumin. The present study therefore investigated the affinity of anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus agents (teicoplanin, linezolid, vancomycin) for haemofilters and the pharmacokinetic properties of teicoplanin during haemodiafiltration. Linezolid, teicoplanin and vancomycin were first screened for their in vitro affinity for three different kinds of filter membranes: polysulfone, polyacrylonitrile and polymethylmethacrylate. Only teicoplanin showed significant filter-binding activity. An in vitro haemodiafiltration circulation model was then developed that incorporated a one-litre beaker containing Krebs-Ringer's bicarbonate solution with/without human albumin (0 or 3 g/dl) as an artificial plasma. Teicoplanin (initial concentration 50 µg/ml, representing the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) resulting from a typical clinical dosage) was circulated throughout the beaker. Teicoplanin concentrations in the 'plasma' and ultrafiltrate were determined by high performance liquid chromatography. In the screening experiment, teicoplanin was predominantly adsorbed onto polysulfone and polymethylmethacrylate membranes. Furthermore, teicoplanin was primarily eliminated by adsorption onto these filters during in vitro haemodiafiltration. Albumin significantly reduced both haemodiafiltration clearance and the adsorption-dependent elimination, although there were complex but significant interactions between albumin and the filter membrane. Elimination of teicoplanin in an in vitro haemodiafiltration model was largely due to adsorption onto polysulfone and polymethylmethacrylate haemofilters. Future clinical studies should likely be designed to evaluate present recommendations of teicoplanin dosages in patients on haemodiafiltration.

Activity of vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, daptomycin and linezolid against coagulasenegative staphylococci bacteremia

Objetivo. Las infecciones por Staphylococcus coagulasa negativos (CNS) resistentes a meticilina aumentado considerablemente en los pacientes hospitalizados. Hemos estudiado la actividad de vancomicina, ciprofloxacino, daptomicina y linezolid en cepas de CNS resistente a meticilina aisladas en hemocultivos clínicamente significativos. Material y Métodos. Se estudiaron 87 cepas de distintas especies de CNS de hemocultivos positivos. Los estafilococos fueron identificados mediante el sistema automático MicroScan Walkaway (Dade Behring, Siemens) y con Api ID 32 Staph (Bio- Merieux, Francia). La sensibilidad a oxacilina, vancomicina y ciprofloxacino fue realizada por dicho sistema MicroScan. La susceptibilidad frente a daptomicina y linezolid fue realizada mediante Etest (AB BioMerieux, Solna, Suecia). Para los criterios de interpretación se siguieron las indicaciones del CLSI. Resultados. Se estudiaron 87 cepas, 55 (63%) fueron S. epidermidis, 15 (17%) fueron S. haemolyticus, 10 (12%) fueron S. hominis, y 7 (8%) pertenecieron a otras especies. 53 (61%) cepas presentaron una MIC para vancomicina de 2 mg/L. La resistencia a ciprofloxacino, MIC > 2 mg/L fue observada en 56 (64%) cepas. No se encontraron resistencia a daptomicina, con un rango de sensibilidad entre 0.032-1 mg/L y un valor modal de 0,25 mg/L. Se aislaron 10 (11,5%) cepas resistentes a linezolid. Nueve pacientes estuvieron ingresados en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos, donde la estancia media fue de 38 días (rango 16-58 días), y uno perteneció al Servicio de Cirugía Hepato-Pancreática, con una estancia de 64 días. Conclusiones. Es frecuente aislar cepas de CNS con pérdida de sensibilidad para vancomicina en nuestro hospital, mientras que daptomicina presenta una alta sensibilidad frente a este tipo de microorganismos. El uso masivo y continuado de linezolid ha llevado a la aparición de resistencias(AU)

Objective. Multiresistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) infections are mainly increased in hospitalized patients. We have studied the activity of vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, daptomycin and linezolid in methicillin-resistant CNS strains, isolated from true blood cultures. Methods. We collected 87 strains of different CNS species from positive blood cultures. Staphylococci were identified by MicroScan Walkaway (Dade Behring, Siemens) and with the Api ID 32 Staph (BioMerieux, France). The susceptibility to oxacillin, vancomycin and ciprofloxacin was performed by automatic microdilution plate as cited above. The susceptibility to daptomycin and linezolid was performed by Etest (AB BioMerieux, Solna, Sweden). Interpretative criteria were done following the CLSI guidelines. Results. Eighty-seven CNS strains were studied: 55 (63%) were S. epidermidis, 15 (17%) S. haemolyticus, 10 (12%) S. hominis, and 7 (8%) other species. Fifty-three (61%) strains showed loss of susceptibility to vancomycin, MIC = 2 mg/L. Ciprofloxacin resistance, MIC > 2 mg/L, was observed in 56 (64%) strains. Daptomycin resistance was not observed, with a susceptibility range between 0.032-1 mg/L and modal value of 0.25 mg/L. Ten strains (11.5%) resistant to linezolid were observed. Nine patients were in ICU, where the average length of stay was 38 days (range 16- 58 days) and one belonged to Hepato-Pancreatic Surgery, where he stayed for 64 days. Conclusions. Low susceptibility to vancomycin is frecuent in the CNS strains studied in our hospital. Daptomycin shows a high efficacy against CNS, and it could be useful for the treatment of primary bacteremia or catheter associated bacteremia. The massive and continuous use of linezolid has led to the appearance of resistance(AU)

Microcolumn LC enantioseparation of chiral compounds using diol silica gel functionalized with vancomycin crystalline degradation products.

Vancomycin crystalline degradation products (CDPs) have been introduced as one of the newest and most interesting derivatives of vancomycin for enantiomer separation of a wide variety of chiral compounds. In this attempt, a chiral stationary phase (CSP) has been prepared using diol silica gel based on vancomycin CDPs which led to a new chiral selector with new functionality of functional groups on a microcolumn LC. Different kinds of mobile phases were examined to realize the behavior of the chiral selector in separation of atropine, fluoxetine, amlodipine, mandelic acid, alanine, and phenylalanine which were separated successfully on this column. Good results were obtained by using a polar mobile phase containing water, methanol, and acid additives for separation of chiral acidic compounds and amino acid samples. Considerable results were obtained for analysis of basic compounds by using polar organic mobile phase (POP) containing methanol, acid and base additives. These results can be associated with the presence of the carboxylic acid groups present in new CSP by using a diol silica gel.

Virulence factors in vancomycin-resistant and vancomycin - susceptible Enterococcus faecalis from Brazil / Fatores de virulência em Enterococcus faecalis resistentes e suscetível à vancomicina isolados no Brasil

Enterococci are members of commensal flora of animals and insects, but are also important opportunistic pathogens. Our objective was to observe if there was any difference of virulence in several groups of E. faecalis, mainly between vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis (VREFS) of colonization and infection. VREFS and vancomycin-sensitive E. faecalis from Brazil were screened for the presence of virulence factor genes. Phenotypic assays were used to assess in vitro expression, to understand the pathogenic potential of these isolates and to determine whether a correlation exists between virulence and antibiotic resistance. Different virulence profiles were found suggesting that the disseminating clone may have generated several variations. However, our study showed that one constellation of traits appeared most commonly: gelatinase, aggregation substance and esp (GEA). These factors are important because they have been implicated in cell aggregation and biofilm formation. Biofilm formation may promote the conjugation of plasmids harboring resistance and virulence genes, enhancing the probability of entry of new resistance genes into species. Curiously, the profile GEA was not exclusive to VREFS, it was the second most observed in VSEFS isolates from colonization and infection in hospitalized patients and also from rectal swabs of healthy volunteers. Such strains appear to represent the entry gateway to new resistance genes into E. faecalis and may contribute to the spreading of E. faecalis mainly in hospitals.

Enterococci são membros da microbiota comensal de animais e insetos, mas também são importantes patógenos oportunistas. Nosso objetivo foi observar se há qualquer diferença na virulência nos diversos grupos de Enterococcus faecalis, principalmente nos E. faecalis resistente à vancomicina (VREFS) isolados de colonização e infecção. VREFS e E. faecalis sensíveis à vancomicina (VSEFS) do Brasil foram pesquisadas quanto a presença de fatores de virulência. Ensaios fenotípicos foram usados para obter a expressão in vivo, entender o potencial patogênico destas amostras e determinar se existe correlação entre virulência e resistência a antibióticos. Diferentes perfis de virulência foram encontrados sugerindo que o clone que está se disseminado pode ter gerado diversas variações. No entanto, nosso estudo mostrou que um conjunto de fatores parece ser mais comum entre as amostras: gelatinase, substância de agregação e esp (GEA). Estes fatores tem sido correlacionados com a agregação de células e formação de biofilmes. A formação de biofilme pode promover a conjugação de plasmídeos contendo genes de resistência entre as espécies. Curiosamente, o perfil GAE não foi exclusivo para VREFS, foi o segundo mais observado em amostras VSEFS provenientes de colonização e infecção em pacientes hospitalizados e também de swabs retais de voluntários saudáveis. Tais linhagens pacerem representar a "porta de entrada" para novos genes de resistência em E. faecalis e podem contribuir para a disseminação de E. faecalis principalmente nos hospitais.

Enantioseparation of extended metal atom chain complexes: unique compounds of extraordinarily high specific rotation.

Extended metal atom chains (EMACs) contain a linear metal chain wrapped by various ligands. Most complexes are of the form M(3)(dpa)(4)X(2), where M = metal, dpa = 2,2'-dipyridylamide, and X = various anions. The ligands form helical coils about the metal chain, which results in chiral EMAC complexes. The EMACs containing the metals Co and Cu were partially separated in polar organic mode using a vancomycin-based chiral stationary phase. Under similar conditions, two EMACs with Ni metal and varying anions could be baseline separated. The polar organic mode was used because of the instability of the compounds in aqueous mobile phases. Also, these conditions are more conducive to preparative separations. Polarimetric measurements on the resolved enantiomers of Ni(3)(dpa)(4)Cl(2) indicate that they have extraordinarily high specific rotations (on the order of 5000 deg cc/g dm).

[Preparation of vancomycin chiral stationary phase and study of racemate separation].

By adopting the bifunctional group reagent methylene-di-paraphenylene iso-cyanate (MDI), a ring antibiotic chiral stationary phase (CSP) was prepared in non-aqueous dimethylfomamide (DMF) with vancomycin which is a macrocyclic glycopeptide antibiotics bonded on gamma-amidopropyl silica gel. It was used in the chiral separation in high performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that vancomycin CSP synthesized in this way can be well used in enantiomer separation of the chiral compounds in normal and reversed-phase. It can be confirmed that the separation capability in reversed-phase is better than that in normal phase. Seventeen pairs of enantiomers were separated in reversed-phase mode, and the results showed a wide range of application. The phosphorus buffer system was better than the triethylamineacetic acid buffer system. The resolution of some chiral drugs such as D,L-dansyl amino acid has certain rule, and provides information about absolute configuration. The aging or denaturalization can not happen in the CSP when phase system was transformed, so it has some stability. The mechanism of the separation was analyzed and found to be the same as that of Armstrong.

Residual antibiotics in allograft heart valve tissue samples following antibiotic disinfection.

Antibiotics are routinely used for the decontamination of allograft heart valves. To monitor the efficacy of this process, samples of tissue are sent for microbiological analysis. This investigation was undertaken to determine residual antibiotic concentrations in decontaminated tissue and to assess the likely inhibitory effect on microbiological cultures. After a typical decontamination protocol, both gentamicin and vancomycin were present in all tissue samples and the majority of enrichment broths at concentrations sufficient to inhibit most bacteria. The data presented indicate that protocols used by heart valve banks and associated microbiology laboratories should be reviewed, and support the use of predecontamination cultures to identify particularly virulent micro-organisms.

The study of enantioseparation of zolmitriptan on vancomycin-bonded chiral stationary phase.

In this study, the chiral stationary phase was prepared by bonding vancomycin to 5 microm spherical silica gel according to "one-pot" synthetic strategies, and used to separate the enantiomers of zolmitriptan under polar ionic mode. The influences of mobile phase composition, such as the concentration and ratio of glacial acetic acid (HOAc) and triethylamine (TEA), on the enantioseparation were investigated, and the chiral recognition mechanism is discussed. It was found experimentally that the retention factors were increased with the increase of the HOAc/TEA concentration in a certain extent, and the ionic interactions, hydrogen bondings, and steric interactions may play key role together. The method is suitable for baseline separation of zolmitriptan enantiomers.

Evaluation of balhimycin as a chiral selector for enantioresolution by capillary electrophoresis.

The glycopeptide antibiotic balhimycin and its haloanalogue bromobalhimycin were evaluated as chiral selectors for enantioresolution by capillary electrophoresis. In order (i) to eliminate the adsorption of the glycopeptide antibiotics on the capillary wall, (ii) to shorten the separation time and (iii) to improve the detection sensitivity, a combined approach of the dynamic surface coating technique, the co-electroosmotic flow electrophoresis technique and the partial filling technique was employed for the enantioresolution of 16 acidic racemates. The effect of experimental parameters (plug length of the partial filling solution containing the chiral selector, selector concentration and buffer pH) on enantiorecognition was investigated. Furthermore, the enantiorecognition ability imparted by balhimycin, bromobalhimycin and vancomycin were compared. For most tested compounds, the highest enantiorecognition was obtained with balhimycin as chiral selector. Only in the case of the enantioresolution of tiaprofenic acid, vancomycin showed a superior enantiorecognition.

Situación de Staphylococcus aureus resistente a meticilina en el Hospital de Navarra (2000-2002) / State of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the Hospital of Navarre (2000-2002)

Fundamento. El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido conocer la prevalencia y características que presentan los aislamientos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina aislados en nuestro Servicio de Microbiología. Material y métodos. El estudio se desarrolló de forma retrospectiva abarcando los años 2000, 2001 y 2002. Se analizó el origen de la infección (nosocomial o extrahospitalaria), servicio de origen en caso de ser nosocomial, localización anatómica de la muestra y patrón de sensibilidad antibiótica. Resultados. Los aislamientos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina constituyeron el 7,88 por ciento de los Staphylococcus aureus aislados en nuestro servicio. Menos de la mitad de las cepas (44,87 por ciento) tuvieron un origen nosocomial y se aislaron con mayor frecuencia en los exudados de heridas. En cuanto al patrón de resistencia, hubo un 50 por ciento de resistencia a eritromicina, un 43,60 por ciento a clindamicina y un 21,79 por ciento a mupirocina. Conclusiones. La prevalencia y el patrón de resistencia in vitro de los aislamientos de Staphylococcus aureus resistentes a meticilina obtenidos en nuestro hospital es menor a la publicada en otras áreas de España (AU)