title: Multidrug resistance and integron carriage in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Tehran, Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the cause of 10% of hospital-acquired infections. The organisms are often multidrug- resistant, mediated mostly by antibiotic-resistant integrons. The aim of this research was to study integron carriage and its association with multidrug resistance in burn and nonburn clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 112 P. aeruginosa clinical isolates were collected from the Motahari and Shohadaye Tajrish hospitals in Tehran between July and December 2011. Antibiotic susceptibility to 13 antibiotics was determined by disk diffusion. Detection of integron classes 1 and 2 and amplifications of internal variable regions (IVRs) of class 1 integrons were carried out by PCR and specific primers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 112 isolates, 77 were from burn patients and 35 were nonburn isolates. Multidrug resistance and class 1 integron carriage were both significantly higher in the burn isolates compared to the nonburn strains (97.4% vs. 22.8% and 82.3% vs. 17.7%, respectively). Class 2 integron (2.7%) was only present in the burn isolates. Amplification of IVRs of class 1 integrons revealed 3 different fragment arrays.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The significant association between multidrug resistance and integron carriage among P. aeruginosa burn isolates suggests a dissemination of resistance determinants by horizontal gene transfer.
authors.forename: Somayeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moazami Goudarzi
authors.forename: Fereshteh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eftekhar
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology; D002053:Burn Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D005260:Female; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D032023:Integrons; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial