title: Molecular epidemiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates from Portuguese Central Hospital.
abstract: The relatedness between clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa obtained from patients during their stay in a Portuguese Central Hospital was evaluated. Genotypic fingerprinting (M13-PCR), phenotypic methods (biotyping and antibiotyping) and epidemiological information (spatial and temporal links) were used to evaluate the relatedness between 88 clinical isolates (68 patients), selected randomly out of 189. Sixty-two M13 types were found, 12 of them containing isolates from more than one patient. Thirty-four antibiotypes were found, as well as a significant association (p < 0.05) between epidemic isolates and multiresistance patterns. The nosocomial transmission of P. aeruginosa strains may be limited since M13 typing demonstrated a high degree of diversity among all the isolates, suggesting the occurrence of mainly independent infectious episodes. The results show the possible occurrence of cross-acquisition, cross-colonization and cross-infection and suggest an epidemic population structure for P. aeruginosa in this hospital.
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Porto, Portugal. apfonseca08@sapo.pt
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.forename: C I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Extremina
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sousa
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tenreiro
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Barros
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005838:Genotype; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012494:Sampling Studies
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial