300NON DIPHTHERIAL CORYNEBACTERIUM SPECIES ISOLATION AND THEIR SUSCEPTIBILITY PROFILE FROM VARIOUS CLINICAL SAMPLES IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF EASTERN INDIA.Non-diphtherial Corynebacteria also known as Diphtheroids is being increasingly reported with invasive nosocomial diseases. Little is known about Corynebacteria infection in hospital environment of developing country like India. This prospective study was performed to determine the frequency of different species from clinical sources and the susceptibility profiles of different Corynebacteria isolated from patients of a tertiary care hospital of eastern India. A total of 150 isolates of different Coryneform species were studied here. The isolates were identified to species level by conventional methods and susceptibility profiles were determined. Corynebacterium amycolatum was the predominant species (26.67%) in our series followed by C.pseudodiphtheriticum (14%). More than 35% of the isolates were resistant to oxacillin, clindamycin, penicillin, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin while all were exclusively sensitive towards vancomycin, linezolid, and tigecycline. Our study showed that Non-diphtherial Corynebacterium species are important cause of nosocomial multidrug resistant infections and continuous efforts to accurate identification at the species level and regular surveillance of their resistant patterns are necessarykalidasrit77@gmail.comResearch582015Non-diphtherial Corynebacteria,Nosocomial,Multidrug resistant infectionsKalidas Rit,Bipasa Chakravorty,Nupur Pal,Rajdeep SahaAssociate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research, Kolkata-700020, West Bengal, India.,Chief Consultant, Asokha Laboratory and Diagnostic Centre, Kolkata, West Bengal, India,Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research, Kolkata-700020, West Bengal, India.,Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata – 700014, West Bengal, India.