Multidrug-ResistantCorynebacterium striatumAssociated with Increased Use of Parenteral Antimicrobial Drugs

Corynebacterium striatum is an emerging multidrugresistant bacteria. We retrospectively identified 179 isolates in a clinical database. Clinical relevance, in vitro susceptibility, and length of parenteral antimicrobial drug use were obtained from patient records. For patients with hardware-or device-associated infections, those with C. striatum infections were matched with patients infected with coagulase-negative staphylococci for case-control analysis. A total of 87 (71%) of 121 isolates were resistant to all oral antimicrobial drugs tested, including penicillin, tetracycline, clindamycin, erythromycin, and ciprofloxacin. When isolated from hardware or devices, C. striatum was pathogenic in 38