Attachment genes (fbe, atlE) play an important role in pacemaker-related Staphylococcus epidermidis infections, whereas the ica locus is not useful for discriminating invasive from contaminating strains in this context.
Attachment genes may aid strain differentiation in device infections; leaves open clinical utility of icaADB testing pending validation.
We explored three genes of attachment (fbe and atlE) and adhesion (ica) in 27 and 10 Staphylococcus epidermidis strains involved in pacemaker-related infections (PMI) and intravascular-catheter-related infections (IVCI), respectively, and in 25 saprophytic strains. The detection rates of fbe and atlE were identical in PMI and IVCI strains, but ica detection rates were identical in PMI and saprophytic strains.
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Klug et al. (2003) studied this question.
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