Performance of an agar dilution method and a Vitek 2 card for detection of inducible clindamycin resistance in Staphylococcus spp.

The D-zone test detects inducible clindamycin resistance in Staphylococcus spp. Two other methods not described by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) are available to test for this resistance mechanism: an agar dilution method and new Vitek 2 cards. This study evaluated the performance of both methods in detecting inducible clindamycin resistance. Nonduplicate clinical strains of Staphylococcus spp. (111 Staphylococcus aureus and 52 coagulase-negative staphylococcus strains), intermediate or resistant to erythromycin but susceptible to clindamycin, were obtained from three hospitals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Molecular analysis to detect resistance genes was conducted on all strains. A Mueller-Hinton agar containing 1 mg of erythromycin and 0.5 mg of clindamycin/liter was used for the dilution method, and two inocula were tested: 10(4) and 10(5) CFU per spot. Plates were read at 24 and 48 h. The Vitek 2 AST-P580 card was used according to the manufacturer's recommendations. The results were compared to those of the D-zone test. The D-zone test was positive in 134 of 163 (82%) strains. With the 10(4) CFU inoculum, the sensitivities were 84 and 99% at 24 and 48 h, respectively. The 10(5) CFU inoculum increased the sensitivities at 24 and 48 h to 91 and 100%, respectively. The specificity was 100% for the 10(4) CFU inoculum at 24 h and 97% for the other combinations. The sensitivity and specificity for the Vitek 2 card were 93 and 100%, respectively. The performance of both the agar dilution method and the Vitek 2 card was good, but these methods were not as sensitive as the D-zone test at 24 h.