We report herein on two cases of bacteremia caused by daptomycin-resistant Corynebacterium striatum. In
these cases, daptomycin-resistant C. striatum was detected after receiving daptomycin for the treatment of multidrug-resistant C. striatum bacteremia, and ERIC-PCR band patterns were identical among the isolates of C. striatum before and after daptomycin therapy. We performed an in vitro assay to determine whether daptomycin resistance is induced in nine clinical isolates of C. striatum, including our two cases, after exposure to daptomycin in broth culture, and seven isolates showed emergence of daptomycin resistance.
To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of daptomycin-resistant C. striatum bacteremia in Japan. The use of daptomycin for the treatment of C. striatam infections should be avoided, considering the risk for rapid emergence of daptomycin resistance.
