title: Clonal comparison of Acinetobacter strains isolated from intensive care patients and the intensive care unit environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most commonly encountered microorganisms in nosocomial infections. It is thought that strains found in the environment can be a source for contamination of patients by Acinetobacter strains that are resistant to environmental conditions. This study was carried out to compare Acinetobacter strains isolated from a variety of nonviable environments and from patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and to explore whether environmental areas may be a source for bacterial contamination.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied A. baumannii strains isolated from ICU patients. When A. baumannii was isolated from the clinical sample of a patient, swab samples were collected from various areas in the ICU. VITEK 2 (bioMérieux, France) was used for the identification of A. baumannii strains and for antibiotic sensitivity tests. DNA fingerprinting analysis was performed with the repetitive sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR) method using a DiversiLab device (bioMérieux).
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study, a total of 100 A. baumannii strains including 92 samples from 61 patients and 8 samples from the environment were isolated. All of the isolated strains were found to have multiresistance to antibiotics. DNA fingerprinting results showed that 7 of the 8 strains isolated from the environment were identical to many strains isolated from the patients. The greatest similarity between samples was found for 1 A. baumannii strain isolated from a computer keyboard, which was identical to the bacterium isolated from 17 other samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A high level of similarity was found between strains isolated from the environment and patients, suggesting deficiencies in implementation of infection control measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Gaziantep University, Turkey.
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kirkgöz
authors.forename: Yasemin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zer
mesh_terms: D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D040981:Acinetobacter baumannii / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial