2018 Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 294-298
This study was designed to clarify the epidemiology of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) in Aichi Prefecture, and to evaluate the screening cut-off value of meropenem (MEPM) for the detection of CPE isolates. A total of 175 Enterobacteriaceae clinical isolates from 14 hospitals in Aichi Prefecture were tested for carbapenemase genes and MEPM susceptibility. As a result, we detected 92 CPE isolates that included 1, 1, 63, 21, 1, 2, 1, and 2 isolates with KPC-2, GES-5, IMP-1, IMP-6, NDM-1, NDM-5, and OXA-48-like genes. These CPE isolates had MEPM minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) that ranged from 0.25 to > 32 μg/mL. Among them, 14 (15.2%) isolates showed MEPM MICs < 2 μg/mL, and that clinical MIC breakpoints were interpreted to indicate susceptibility. Therefore, we concluded that MEPM MICs > 0.125 μg/mL (which is the cut-off value of the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Guidelines) is suitable for screening for CPE. We believe that enforcement of continuous monitoring, including surveillance of CPE based on MIC and a molecular approach, is important to prevent the future spread of CPE.
