[Characteristics of atypical forms of staphylococci (SCVs) isolated from patients with osteomyelitis].

Small-colony variants (SCVs), isolated from a population of the parental strains of Staphylococcus aureus, S. haemolyticus and S. epidermidis lost a number of features typical of the species and genus and were characterized by delayed growth, altered colony morphology, lack of pigmentation and changed carbohydrate consumption. Some SCVs of S. aureus had no plasmocoagulase and lecithinase activities. The analysis of 14 SCVs showed that they were auxotrophic for hemin and menadione and resistant to aminoglycoside antibiotics. Such aberrant phenotypic characteristics complicated or made it impossible their identification by the common clinical laboratory methods. The tRNA intergenic spacer length polymorphism analysis was used to identify the atypical forms of the staphylococci.