title: Rapid, cost-effective, sensitive and quantitative detection of Acinetobacter baumannii from pneumonia patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pneumonia with Acinetobacter baumannii has a major therapeutic problem in health care settings. Decision to initiate correct antibiotic therapy requires rapid identification and quantification of organism. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid and sensitive method for direct detection of A. baumannii from respiratory specimens.
  
  
  METHODS
  A Taqman real time PCR based on the sequence of bla(oxa-51) was designed and used for direct detection of A. baumannii from 361 respiratory specimens of patients with pneumonia. All specimens were checked by conventional bacteriology in parallel.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The new real time PCR could detect less than 200 cfu per ml of bacteria in specimens. There was agreement between the results of real time PCR and culture (Kappa value 1.0, p value<0.001). The sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of real time PCR were 100%. The prevalence of A. baumannii in pneumonia patients was 10.53 % (n=38). Poly-microbial infections were detected in 65.71% of specimens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acinetobacter baumannii is the third causative agent in nosocomial pneumonia after Pseudomonas aeroginosa (16%) and Staphylococcus aureus (13%) at Tehran hospitals. We recommend that 104 CFU be the threshold for definition of infection with A. baumannii using real time PCR.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nomanpour
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghodousi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Babaei
authors.forename: Hr
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abtahi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tabrizi
authors.forename: Mm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feizabadi