[Antimicrobial susceptibilities of clinical Nocardia isolates identified by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis]

Nocardia species are ubiquitous in the environment and responsible for various human infections such as pulmonary, cutaneous, central nervous system and disseminated nocardiosis. Since the clinical pictures and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Nocardia species exhibit variability, susceptibility testing is recommended for every Nocardia isolates. The aims of this study was to determine the antimicrobial susceptibilities of Nocardia clinical isolates and to compare the results of broth microdilution and disc diffusion susceptibility tests. A total of 45 clinical Nocardia isolates (isolated from 17 respiratory tract, 8 brain abscess, 7 pus, 3 skin, 3 conjunctiva, 2 blood, 2 tissue, 2 pleural fluid and 1 cerebrospinal fluid samples) were identified by using conventional methods and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Susceptibility testing was performed for amikacin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, linezolid and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) by broth microdilution method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) criteria recommended in 2011 approved standard (M24-A2) and disk diffusion method used as an alternative comparative susceptibility testing method. Among the 45 Nocardia strains, N.cyriacigeorgica (n: 26, 57.8%) was the most common species, followed by N.farcinica (n: 12, 26.7%), N.otitiscaviarum (n: 4, 8.9%), N.asteroides (n: 1, 2.2%), N.neocaledoniensis (n: 1, 2.2%) and N.abscessus (n: 1, 2.2%). Amikacin and linezolid were the only two antimicrobials to which all isolates were susceptible for both broth microdilution and disk diffusion tests. In broth microdilution test, resistance rates to TMP-SMX, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin were found as 15.6%, 37.8% and 84.4% respectively, whereas in the disk diffusion test, the highest resistance rate was observed against ciprofloxacin (n: 33, 73.3%), followed by TMP-SMX (n: 22, 48.9%) and ceftriaxone (n: 15, 33.3%). In both of these tests, N.cyriacigeorgica was the species with the highest resistance to ciprofloxacin (n: 25, 96.2%). When the susceptibility test results were compared, amikacin (κ= 1), linezolid (κ= 1), and ceftriaxone (κ= 0.903) showed very good agreement, whereas ciprofloxacin showed good agreement (κ= 0.672). For TMP-SMX no agreement was found between the two test methods (κ= 0.092). In conclusion, due to the identification of different species with molecular methods and increased frequency of Nocardia infections in recent years, in vitro susceptibility testing for Nocardia species is important to guide the appropriate antimicrobial treatment.