Rectal swabs are suitable for quantifying the carriage load of KPC-producing carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae

A. Lerner, J. Romano, I. Chmelnitsky, S. Navon-Venezia, R. Edgar, Y. Carmeli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is more convenient and practical to collect rectal swabs than stool specimens to study carriage of colon pathogens. In this study, we examined the ability to use rectal swabs rather than stool specimens to quantify Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). We used a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assay to determine the concentration of the blaKPC gene relative to the concentration of 16S rRNA genes and a quantitative culture-based method to quantify CRE relative to total aerobic bacteria. Our results demonstrated that rectal swabs are suitable for quantifying the concentration of KPC-producing CRE and that qPCR showed higher correlation between rectal swabs and stool specimens than the culture-based method.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1474-1479
Number of pages6
JournalAntimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Volume57
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2013
Externally publishedYes

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