Performance of CHROMAgar™ LIN-R screening medium for the detection of linezolid-resistant enterococci in Croatian tertiary care hospital.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the performance of CHROMAgar™LIN-R agar plates as part of a multicenter study ("APPLE").

METHODS

The study was performed using 1200 rectal swabs and stool samples.

RESULTS

We identified 168 enterococci with 75.6% (127/168) confirmed as linezolid-resistant (LRE) by the disc diffusion method. Among these, 48 LRE were single-patient isolates, of which 75% (36/48) showed resistance to vancomycin and 4.2% (2/48) to vancomycin and tigecycline. Overall LRE prevalence was 4.3% (48/1113) with the highest prevalence at adult hematology wards (11.3%). False-positivity rate was 24.4% (41/168) and significantly lower in neurological intensive care and hematology departments compared to pediatric hematology (adjusted p = 0.0034 and p = 0.0014, respectively). Prevalence was significantly higher in stool samples (8.8% vs. 1.6%) (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Assessing the performance of CHROMAgar™LIN-R among different patient groups and sample types may enhance its application.