Screening of Gene in Strains Isolated in Transylvania Region of Romania.

In the last few decades, methicillin-resistant (MRSA) strains have become a serious health care problem. However, in the European Union/European Economic Area countries the prevalence of the invasive MRSA isolates has decreased in recent years; in Romania, the considerably high prevalence of these strains is still unchanged. In this study, 396 staphylococcal strains were screened using molecular biology techniques for the presence of the , and genes and for the detection of the possible mutations accumulated in the gene. More than half of the collected strains (59.34%) were determined as , and 63 strains were considered as MRSA. Small number of MRSA strains ( = 6; 54.54% of invasive ) originated from hemoculture. The gene was present in 22 MRSA strains and in 4 methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci strains. The majority of the -positive MRSA strains contained the C to T substitution at position 202; furthermore, one previously undescribed mutation (C to G transversion at nucleotide position 285) was detected in one MRSA strain.