Antibiotic resistance and carriage class 1 and 2 integrons in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii from Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate antibiotic resistance and carriage class 1 and 2 integrons in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) from Tehran, Iran.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The presence of integrons was investigated by PCR using specific primers.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among isolated A. baumannii strains, 82% were multidrug resistant, 27 samples (54%) were resistant to three or more than three antibiotics and 16 samples (32%) showed resistance to two antibiotics. Integrons were detected from 44 of 50 isolates (88%), with classes 1 and 2 being observed in 42% (21/50) and 82% (41/50) of isolates, respectively. Integron-positive A. baumannii isolates showed higher antibiotic resistance than integron-negative isolates and all showed a multidrug-resistant phenotype.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our findings show that classes 1 and 2 integrons, and especially classes 2 integrons are widely disseminated among A. baumannii strains isolated from Tehran and these structures are playing a major role in the acquisition of multidrug resistance in these strains. So monitoring of drug resistance with investigating carriage class 1 and 2 integrons is very important to plan specific infection control measures due to multidrug resistance A. baumannii in Iran hospitals.</p>