title: Molecular and epidemiological characterization of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in non-tertiary Korean hospitals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The increasing prevalence and global spread of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has become a serious problem. The aim of this study was to investigate molecular and epidemiological characteristics of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates collected from Korean non-tertiary hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty six non-duplicated carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii isolates were collected from 17 non-tertiary hospitals in Korea between 2004 and 2006. Isolates were typed by multilocus sequence typing and repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR). Detection of genes encoding OXA carbapenemase and their relationship with ISAba1 was performed by PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two clones were prevalent among 36 isolates: ST69 (17 isolates, 47.2%) and ST92 (19 isolates, 52.8%). Rep-PCR patterns were diverse and revealed that all isolates were clustered into eight band patterns. The ISAba1-activated blaOXA-23-like and ISAba1-activated blaOXA-51-like genes were prevalent among the carbapenem- resistant A. baumannii isolates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The class D β-lactamase genes of A. baumannii were distributed nationwide in non-tertiary Korean hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Division of Antimicrobial Resistance, Center for Infectious Diseases, Korea National Institute of Health, Cheongwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Sunok
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hwa-Su
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kyeong Min
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jung Sik
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Jae Il
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Yeong Seon
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Gyung Tae
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D015780:Carbapenems / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D056910:Republic of Korea; D001618:beta-Lactamases / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D015780:Carbapenems; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D001618:beta-Lactamases