Antimicrobial susceptibility and molecular typing of toxigenic clinical isolates of Clostridium difficile causing infections in the south of Spain

Abstract

Antimicrobial susceptibility to 6 antimicrobial agents, PCR-ribotyping and molecular genetics of fluoroquinolone resistance was assessed in 70 toxigenic clinical isolates of C. difficile recovered from patients attended in a hospital in southern Spain with suspected Clostridium difficile infection. Moxifloxacin was the least active drug, mainly driven by the aminoacid substitution Thr82Ile in GyrA, while PCR-ribotype 078 was the most prevalent lineage identified and grouped several of the fluoroquinolone resistant isolates.

Keywords: Clostridium difficile; Fluroquinolone; Ribotype; Ribotype 078; Spain.