The Trends of the Species and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacteria and Fungi Isolated from Blood Cultures (1986-1996)

Kang, Byung Kee; Lee, Hee Joo; Suh, Jin Tae

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Analysis of the species and antimicrobial susceptibility trend of bacterial and fungal isolate from blood can provide the clinicians with important informations for the treatment of the patients.
METHODS
We analyzed the species and antimicrobial susceptibility trends of microorganisms isolated from blood cultures from 1986 to 1996 at Kyunghee Medical Center. Identification of organism was based on conventional methods or commercial kit systems. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done by the NCCLS disk diffusion method.
RESULTS
The positive blood culture was obtained from 3,559 patients. Among the patients 95.6% showed aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria, 0.9% anaerobes, and 3.6% fungi. Escherichia coli was isolated most frequently, followed by Coagulase-negative staphylococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus, alpha- hemolytic Streptococcus and Serratia. The proportion of patients with E. coli decreased from 34.5% in 1986 to 22.1% in 1996, while that of S. aureus increased from 9.7% to 13.9%. Proportion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and the third generation cephalosporin-resistant K. pneumoniae increased during the study period.
CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that E. coli is the most common cause of bacteremia at Kyunghee Medical Center. The third generation cephalosporin-resistant K. pneumoniae and methicillin- resistant S. aureus are increasing in proportion.