TY  - JOUR
AU  - Salimi, Hassan 
AU  - Owlia, Parviz 
AU  - Yakhchali, Bagher 
AU  - Lari, Abdolaziz Rastegar 
PY  - 2009
TI  - Drug Susceptibility and Molecular Epidemiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated in a Burn Unit
JF  - American Journal of Infectious Diseases
VL  - 5
IS  - 4
DO  - 10.3844/ajidsp.2009.301.306
UR  - https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajidsp.2009.301.306
AB  - Problem statement: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that still
develops life-threatening infections in patients with immunological system defects, like burn patients,
especially in developing countries. Since this bacterium is naturally resistant to many drugs and is able
to get resistance to all effective antibiotics, the infection with this organism is particularly problematic
condition for patients. This study was design to evaluated drug susceptibility for determination of
multidrug-resistant isolates and molecular epidemiology of P. aeruginosa colonization for
investigation of the isolates routes in the burn unit of Shahid Motahhari Hospital in Tehran.
Approach: About 127 clinical and 2 environmental P. aeruginosa isolates were collected during 6
months. All P. aeruginosa isolates were analyzed for drug susceptibility by disk diffusion method and
molecular epidemiology assessment were done by RAPD-PCR analysis. Results: Drug susceptibility
tests were shown high resistance for ceftizoxime (86.8%), aztreonam (80.6%), kanamycin (79.8%) and
tetracycline (78.3%); furthermore, low resistance for some antibiotics like imipenem (30.2%),
piperacillin/tazobactam (34.1%) and amikacin (41.1%) was showed. In addition, 42 multidrug-resistant
P. aeruginosa isolates were recovered from clinical specimens and one isolate from environmental
samples. Molecular typing revealed eight different profiles that include two profiles, RAPD1 and
RAPD4, with environmental resource. The major RAPD profile was RAPD1 profile (n = 64, 50.4%),
which includes 31 (72.1%) multidrug-resistant isolates with an environmental reservoir. Conclusion: In
summery, we were found three different profiles for multidrug-resistant strains. Different RAPD
profiles suggested the different resources of infection, two environmental resources were found, that
one of them was multidrug-resistant strain. These findings highlighted the need for further attention to
disinfection inanimate hospital environment and controlled contact between staff with patients to limit
transfer of P. aeruginosa in this BU; moreover, use of some antimicrobial agents must be restricted
due to existence of high resistance and using of combined effective antibiotics is recommend.