Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Clonal Relation Between Acinetobacter baumannii Strains at a Tertiary Care Center in Turkey

BACKGROUND Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen, related with nosocomial infections such as bacteremia, urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Multidrug resistant (MDR) A. baumannii strains are first line causes of infection, especially in patients hospitalized at intensive care units (ICUs). Infection with MDR A. baumannii strains has a longer duration at ICUs and hospitals. There are studies using molecular methods which can differentiate MDR A. baumannii strains at the clonal level. This helps controlling these resistant strains and prevents their epidemy. OBJECTIVES The aim of our study was to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility and clonal relationship between the A. baumannii strains isolated from our ICU. MATERIALS AND METHODS The identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of 33 A. baumannii strains were performed by automatized Vitek version 2.0. The clonal relationship among A. baumannii strains was analyzed using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS A total of 33 A. baumannii strains were included in this study. A. baumannii complex strains were classified into seven clusters based on the fingerprint results. Our results revealed that two main clusters were responsible for the prevalence of A. baumannii complex strains at the ICU. CONCLUSIONS MDR A. baumannii strains cause an increment in morbidity and mortality, particularly in ICUs. The use of molecular epidemiological methods can help us with the detection of the pathogen and preventing from spreading of these resistant strains.