Comparison of deferred and bedside culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae: a study to improve the isolation of gonococci for antimicrobial susceptibility testing

Author(s):  
Iryna Boiko ◽  
Yuliia Stepas ◽  
Inna Krynytska

Background and Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is globally spread and threatening. Cultur- ing of N. gonorrhoeae is the only method to collect live isolates for investigation antimicrobial resistance profile. Therefore, quality assessment of N. gonorrhoeae culture is essential for successful isolation of gonococci. This study was conducted to evaluate deferred and bedside culture of N. gonorrhoeae depending on the year season and temperature condition of transport media temporary storage. Materials and Methods: Urogenital swabs from 46 symptomatic heterosexual patients with gonorrhoea and subculture of N. gonorrhoeae in 46 suspensions in concentrations 1.5 × 108 CFU/ml were subjected to the study. Non-nutritive transporting medium Amies Agar Gel Medium with charcoal (Copan Diagnostics Inc., Brescia, Italy) was used for deferred culture and selective Chocolate agar TM+PolyViteX VCAT3 (BioMérieux, Marcy-l'Étoile, France) for both tested methods of culture. Results: The specificity of both bedside and deferred methods of culture was 100%. The sensitivity of deferred culture was higher than of bedside culture (82.6% vs 47.8%, p<0.0005). Deferred culture showed significantly higher sensitivity com- paring to bedside culture in summer (100% vs 50%, p=0.003), and comparably the same as for bedside culture in autumn, winter and spring. Conclusion: The viability of N. gonorrhoeae subcultures was significantly higher in refrigerated samples from transport media than from ambient one after exposition from 48 to 96 hours. Optimal viability of N. gonorrhoeae was observed when transport swabs were kept refrigerated up to 48 h (73.9-93.5%) or ambiently – up to 24 h (87%). Updating laboratory guide- lines regarding sampling and timely specimen processing might improve gonococcal culture performance.

mSphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam L. Bailey ◽  
Robert F. Potter ◽  
Meghan A. Wallace ◽  
Caitlin Johnson ◽  
Gautam Dantas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The objectives of this study were to perform genomic and phenotypic characterization of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates recovered from urine samples from patients in St. Louis, MO, USA. Sixty-four clinical isolates were banked over a 2-year period and subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion (penicillin, tetracycline, cefuroxime, and ciprofloxacin) and gradient diffusion (tetracycline, doxycycline, azithromycin, ceftriaxone, cefixime, ciprofloxacin, gemifloxacin, and delafloxacin). The medical records for the patients were evaluated to determine the demographics, location, and prescribed treatment regimen. Isolate draft genomes were assembled from Illumina shotgun sequencing data, and resistance determinants were identified by ResFinder and PointFinder. Of the 64 isolates, 97% were nonsusceptible to penicillin, with resistant isolates all containing the blaTEM-1b gene; 78 and 81% of isolates were nonsusceptible to tetracycline and doxycycline, respectively, with resistant isolates all containing the tet(M) gene. One isolate was classified as non-wild-type to azithromycin, and all isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone; 89% of patients received this combination of drugs as first-line therapy. Six percent of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, with most resistant isolates containing multiple gyrA and parC mutations. Correlation between disk and gradient diffusion AST devices was high for tetracycline and ciprofloxacin (R2 > 99% for both). The rates of N. gonorrhoeae antibiotic resistance in St. Louis are comparable to current rates reported nationally, except ciprofloxacin resistance was less common in our cohort. Strong associations between specific genetic markers and phenotypic susceptibility testing hold promise for the utility of genotype-based diagnostic assays to guide directed antibiotic therapy. IMPORTANCE Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, which is most commonly diagnosed using a DNA-based detection method that does not require growth and isolation of N. gonorrhoeae in the laboratory. This is problematic because the rates of antibiotic resistance in N. gonorrhoeae are increasing, but without isolating the organism in the clinical laboratory, antibiotic susceptibility testing cannot be performed on strains recovered from clinical specimens. We observed an increase in the frequency of urine cultures growing N. gonorrhoeae after we implemented a total laboratory automation system for culture in our clinical laboratory. Here, we report on the rates of resistance to multiple historically used, first-line, and potential future-use antibiotics for 64 N. gonorrhoeae isolates. We found that the rates of antibiotic resistance in our isolates were comparable to national rates. Additionally, resistance to specific antibiotics correlated closely with the presence of genetic resistance genes, suggesting that DNA-based tests could also be designed to guide antibiotic therapy for treating gonorrhea.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (36) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Regnath ◽  
Thomas Mertes ◽  
Ralf Ignatius

Increasing antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, particularly to third-generation cephalosporins, has been reported in many countries. We examined the susceptibility (determined by Etest and evaluated using the breakpoints of the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing) of 434 N. gonorrhoeae isolates collected from 107 female and 327 male patients in Stuttgart, south-west Germany, between 2004 and 2015. During the study period, high proportions of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin (70.3%), tetracycline (48.4%; increasing from 27.5% in 2004/2005 to 57.7% in 2014/2015; p = 0.0002) and penicillin (25.6%). The proportion of isolates resistant to azithromycin was low (5.5%) but tended to increase (p = 0.08). No resistance and stable minimum inhibitory concentrations were found for cefixime, ceftriaxone, and spectinomycin. High-level resistance was found for ciprofloxacin (39.6%) and tetracycline (20.0%) but not for azithromycin; 16.3% of the isolates produced betalactamase. Thus, cephalosporins can still be used for the treatment of gonorrhoea in the study area. To avoid further increasing resistance to azithromycin, its usage should be limited to patients allergic to cephalosporins, or (in combination with cephalosporins) to patients for whom no susceptibility testing could be performed or those co-infected with chlamydiae.


2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masatoshi Tanaka ◽  
Hiroshi Nakayama ◽  
Masashi Haraoka ◽  
Takeshi Saika ◽  
Intetsu Kobayashi ◽  
...  

To assess the antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated from 1993 through 1998 in Japan, susceptibility testing was conducted on 502 isolates. Selected isolates were characterized by auxotype and analysis for mutations within the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR) in the gyrAand parC genes, which confer fluoroquinolone resistance on the organism. Plasmid-mediated penicillin resistance (penicillinase-producing N. gonorrhoeae) decreased significantly from 1993–1994 (7.9%) to 1997–1998 (2.0%). Chromosomally mediated penicillin resistance decreased from 1993–1994 (12.6%) to 1995–1996 (1.9%) and then increased in 1997–1998 (10.7%). Chromosomally mediated tetracycline resistance decreased from 1993–1994 (3.3%) to 1997–1998 (2.0%), and no plasmid-mediated high-level tetracycline resistance was found. Isolates with ciprofloxacin resistance (MIC ≥ 1 μg/ml) increased significantly from 1993–1994 (6.6%) to 1997–1998 (24.4%). The proline-requiring isolates were less susceptible to ciprofloxacin than the prototrophic or arginine-requiring isolates. Ciprofloxacin-resistant isolates contained three or four amino acid substitutions within the QRDR in the GyrA and ParC proteins.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángela Galán-Relaño ◽  
Belén Barrero-Domínguez ◽  
Almudena Casamayor ◽  
Fernando Cardoso-Toset ◽  
Ana Lucía Solarte ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen N. Kersh ◽  
Cau D. Pham ◽  
John R. Papp ◽  
Robert Myers ◽  
Richard Steece ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT U.S. gonorrhea rates are rising, and antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (AR-Ng) is an urgent public health threat. Since implementation of nucleic acid amplification tests for N. gonorrhoeae identification, the capacity for culturing N. gonorrhoeae in the United States has declined, along with the ability to perform culture-based antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Yet AST is critical for detecting and monitoring AR-Ng. In 2016, the CDC established the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network) to shore up the national capacity for detecting several resistance threats including N. gonorrhoeae. AR-Ng testing, a subactivity of the CDC’s AR Lab Network, is performed in a tiered network of approximately 35 local laboratories, four regional laboratories (state public health laboratories in Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington), and the CDC’s national reference laboratory. Local laboratories receive specimens from approximately 60 clinics associated with the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP), enhanced GISP (eGISP), and the program Strengthening the U.S. Response to Resistant Gonorrhea (SURRG). They isolate and ship up to 20,000 isolates to regional laboratories for culture-based agar dilution AST with seven antibiotics and for whole-genome sequencing of up to 5,000 isolates. The CDC further examines concerning isolates and monitors genetic AR markers. During 2017 and 2018, the network tested 8,214 and 8,628 N. gonorrhoeae isolates, respectively, and the CDC received 531 and 646 concerning isolates and 605 and 3,159 sequences, respectively. In summary, the AR Lab Network supported the laboratory capacity for N. gonorrhoeae AST and associated genetic marker detection, expanding preexisting notification and analysis systems for resistance detection. Continued, robust AST and genomic capacity can help inform national public health monitoring and intervention.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 288
Author(s):  
Sonia Sciortino ◽  
Pietro Arculeo ◽  
Vincenzina Alio ◽  
Cinzia Cardamone ◽  
Luisa Nicastro ◽  
...  

Arcobacter spp. are emerging waterborne and foodborne zoonotic pathogens responsible for gastroenteritis in humans. In this work, we evaluated the occurrence and the antimicrobial resistance profile of Arcobacter isolates recovered from different aquatic sources. Besides, we searched for Arcobacter spp. in seaweeds and the corresponding seawater samples. Bacteriological and molecular methods applied to 100 samples led to the isolation of 28 Arcobacter isolates from 27 samples. The highest prevalence was detected in rivers followed by artificial ponds, streams, well waters, and spring waters. Seaweeds contained a higher percentage of Arcobacter than the corresponding seawater samples. The isolates were identified as Arcobacter butzleri (96.4%) and Arcobacter cryaerophilus (3.6%). All the isolates showed a multi-drug resistance profile, being resistant to at least three different classes of antibiotics. Molecular analysis of genetic determinants responsible for tetracycline resistance in nine randomly chosen isolates revealed the presence of tetO and/or tetW. This work confirms the occurrence and the continuous emergence of antibiotic-resistant Arcobacter strains in environmental samples; also, the presence of quinolone-resistant Arcobacter spp. in aquatic sources used for water supply and irrigation represents a potential risk for human health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliaksandra Aniskevich ◽  
Iryna Shimanskaya ◽  
Iryna Boiko ◽  
Tatyana Golubovskaya ◽  
Daniel Golparian ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Limited antimicrobial resistance (AMR) data for Neisseria gonorrhoeae are available in Eastern Europe. We investigated AMR in N. gonorrhoeae isolates in the Republic of Belarus from 2009 to 2019, antimicrobial treatment recommended nationally, and treatment given to patients with gonorrhoea. Methods N. gonorrhoeae isolates (n = 522) cultured in three regions of Belarus in 2009–2019 were examined. Determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of eight antimicrobials was performed using Etest. Resistance breakpoints from the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing were applied where available. A Nitrocefin test identified β-lactamase production. Gonorrhoea treatment for 1652 patients was also analysed. Statistical significance was determined by the Z-test, Fisher’s exact test, or Mann-Whitney U test with p-values of < 0.05 indicating significance. Results In total, 27.8% of the N. gonorrhoeae isolates were resistant to tetracycline, 24.7% to ciprofloxacin, 7.0% to benzylpenicillin, 2.7% to cefixime, and 0.8% to azithromycin. No isolates were resistant to ceftriaxone, spectinomycin, or gentamicin. However, 14 (2.7%) isolates had a ceftriaxone MIC of 0.125 mg/L, exactly at the resistance breakpoint (MIC > 0.125 mg/L). Only one (0.2%) isolate, from 2013, produced β-lactamase. From 2009 to 2019, the levels of resistance to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline were relatively high and stable. Resistance to cefixime was not identified before 2013 but peaked at 22.2% in 2017. Only sporadic isolates with resistance to azithromycin were found in 2009 (n = 1), 2012 (n = 1), and 2018–2019 (n = 2). Overall, 862 (52.2%) patients received first-line treatment according to national guidelines (ceftriaxone 1 g). However, 154 (9.3%) patients received a nationally recommended alternative treatment (cefixime 400 mg or ofloxacin 400 mg), and 636 (38.5%) were given non-recommended treatment. Conclusions The gonococcal resistance to ciprofloxacin and tetracycline was high, however, the resistance to azithromycin was low and no resistance to ceftriaxone was identified. Ceftriaxone 1 g can continuously be recommended as empiric first-line gonorrhoea therapy in Belarus. Fluoroquinolones should not be prescribed for treatment if susceptibility has not been confirmed by testing. Timely updating and high compliance with national evidence-based gonorrhoea treatment guidelines based on quality-assured AMR data are imperative. The need for continued, improved and enhanced surveillance of gonococcal AMR in Belarus is evident.


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