Antimicrobial susceptibility of metallo-beta-lactamase positive and negative Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from intensive care unit patients.

Carbapenem resistance in Gram-negative bacteria is a worldwide increasing and one of the most disturbing problems, given these antibiotics are drugs of choice in the treatment of infections caused by extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase producing strains. In this study the antibiotic susceptibility of metallo-beta-lactamase-positive and negative Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from intensive care unit (ICU) patients was evaluated. The presence of genes encoding MBLs was determined with a commercial kit hyplex MBL ID (BAG HEALTH CARE). The MBL-producing isolates were the first K. pneumoniae isolates of this kind identified in Poland. It seems that methods for detecting MBLs in Enterobacteriaceae should be included in contemporary standards of microbiological diagnostics in the country.