rep-pcr typing, antibiogram pattern and distribution of clinical isolates of pseudomonas aeruginosa in a teaching hospital in south of iran

introduction: p. aeruginosa is an important multi-drug resistant (mdr) opportunistic pathogen in hospital-acquired infections. several methods based on dna analysis have been used for investigating genetic diversity of p. aeruginosa isolates. among them, rep‑pcr typing has been introduced as a rapid, low cost method with high discriminatory power. the aims of this study were to investigate genotypic relatedness and antibiotic resistance in clinical isolates of p. aeruginosa. methods: this cross - sectional study was carried out on 67 p.aeruginosa at shahid mohammadi hospital, bandar abbas, iran, between may 2012 and june 2013. identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates were determined by conventional biochemical reactions and kirby-bauer method. the genetic similarity was investigated by rep-pcr technique and data analysis was performed with ntsys pc software, and jacquard's method. the correlation between the molecular patterns and the other parameters was determined by pearson’s chi-square test using spss software, version 19. results: rep-pcr results, created 7 genotypic clusters with 76% similarity. clusters i and iii were the most prevalent clones, identified in 16 (23.88%) of isolates, distinctly. icu had the most cluster diversity. the majority of isolates were obtained from sputum (29.85 %). the isolates were most resistant to cotrimoxazole (80.6%) and most susceptible to ciprofloxacin (85.1%). conclusion: rep-pcr type a and c were the predominant strains in our hospital.  because of serious infections and high drug resistance, it is necessary to implement the guidelines of infection control committee to reduce pseudomonas infections.