title: Clonal spread of carbapenem resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an university hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined 14 Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates collected in 2000 from patients hospitalised in different wards at Charle Nicolle hospital from Tunisia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis includes serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility profile, beta-lactamase detection, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA and pulsed field gel electrophoresis. All Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains belonged to serotype O12 and they demonstrated a high level of resistance to all antibiotioc tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Beta-lactamase detection revealed that 9 of these strains had ceftazidime activity restored by cloxacillin and none of the 14 strains were metallo-beta-lactamase producing. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis and pulsed field gel electrophoresis were able to discriminate isolates and gave concordant results which showed epidemiologically related strains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results confirm a clonal spread of multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa O12 throughout the hospital.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Recherche Résistance aux Antibiotiques Faculté de Médecine de Tunis.
authors.forename: Samia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hammami
authors.forename: Rafiâa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghozzi
authors.forename: Salima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben Ayed
authors.forename: Assia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ben Hassen
authors.forename: Saida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben Redjeb
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015780:Carbapenems / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015780:Carbapenems