CRP and infection: According to the findings herein, patients who were infected by CA-MRSA tended to have less severe clinical characteristics in terms of comorbidity, amputation rate and the involvement of lower extremities than those with HA-MRSA infections, suggesting that it may be associated with limited elevation of C-reactive protein in patients as well as lower virulence of CA-MRSA strains which differed distinctly from the highly virulent PVL-positive CA-MRSA strains spreading elsewhere.