Background and Aim: Staphylococcus aureus can cause a range of diseases including skin disorders, food poisoning and nosocomial infections. Resistance to antibiotics is a major problem and widespread use of antibiotics plays a major role in the emergence of resistant bacteria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibiotic resistance and isolation of vancomycin resistance genes in S. aureus strains isolated from clinical samples by multiplex PCR.

Material and methods: 150 clinical samples were collected randomly from ulcers and nasal swabs from medical centers in Tehran from April to July 2015. Biochemical and microbiological tests were performed to identify strains of S. aureus. Antibiotic susceptibility test was conducted by disc diffusion (Kirby-Bauer) method.

Results: The highest resistance rate belonged to clindamycin (83.3 %). Vancomycin and linezolid had the highest sensitivity rate (96.6%). Using  multiplex PCR, from 60 human samples only one (1.6%) had VanA and VanB genes, but we did not detect VanC gene in the samples.

Conclusion: The results showed a high prevalence rate of S. aureus with low resistance to vancomycin in the clinical samples.

Key words: Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin resistance genes, Multiplex PCR.

Received: Jan 3, 2016      Accepted: Jul 13, 2016