Detection of inducible clindamycin resistance in clinical isolates of staphylococcus aureus by the disc diffusion induction test

Therapeutic failure to Clindamycin has been reported due to mechanisms which confer resistance constitutively, or by the presence of low level inducers which can lead to therapeutic failure. Therefore, this study was undertaken to identify the strains that have the potential to become resistant during therapy. Inducible Clindamycin resistance was tested by the Clindamycin disc induction test (D test) as per the CLSI recommendations. The study showed 54.78% MRSA isolates and 32.5% inducible Clindamycin resistant isolates among them as compared to 15.53% in MSSA isolates. We concluded that routine screening for inducible resistance to Clindamycin must be performed so that the drug is used effectively and for maximum clinical utility.