An Investigation into Bacterial Bloodstream Infections and Antibiotic Resistance Profiles in a Tertiary Hospital for...

Bloodstream infections are one of the major causes of healthcare-associated morbidity and mortality. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of the microorganisms isolated from blood cultures and to evaluate susceptibilities to antimicrobial agents in a tertiary center, Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

Blood cultures (BCs) were incubated in BACTEC/9050 (Becton Dickinson, USA) (2007 - 2015) and BacT/ALERT (bio-Merieux, France) (2014 - 2016) automated systems. PhoenixTM 100 system (Becton Dickinson, USA) (2007 - 2014), MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker, USA) (2015 - 2016) and conventional techniques were used for the identification of isolated microorganisms. According to CLSI (2007 - 2014) and EUCAST (2015 - 2016) criteria, Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method, PhoenixTM system, and broth microdilution were applied for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Two five-year periods were statistically compared regarding antibiotic resistance.

From the overall evaluated 31,380 BCs, 7,367 cultures (23.5%) were positive, excluding 503 BCs (6.4%), which were interpreted as contamination. Of 7,367 isolated microorganisms, 3,680 (50.0%) were gram-negative, 3,303 (44.8%) were gram-positive bacteria, and 384 (5.2%) were fungi. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were predominantly isolated (n = 2,075; 28.2%) among gram-positives. E.coli (n = 978; 13.3%) was the most frequently isolated gram-negative species. Between the first and the last five-year period, three genera (Enterococcus spp., Acinetobacter spp., Streptococcus spp.) showed significant differences when isolated, and only Enterococcus spp. showed increased isolation rates. In total, 90.3% of CoNS and 32% of S. aureus were methicillin-resistant. Only 75 strains of Enterococcus spp. (12.1%) were vancomycin-resistant. ESBL was detected in 40.6% of E. coli and 30.7% of Klebsiella spp. isolates. Carbapenem resistance showed a significant increase, particularly in K. pneumoniae (> 20%).

The findings suggest that there was a threatening condition in antimicrobial resistance rates, especially for some antimicrobials between two periods. Although antimicrobial resistance is usually associated with MRSA, carbapenem resistance, ESBL, and VRE, the problem is far beyond these definitions, consisting of not just medicine, but also commercial companies, food industry, veterinarians, and other areas.