title: The clonal relationship among theCitrobacter freundiiisolated from the main hospital in Kermanshah, west of Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Citrobacter freundiiis an opportunistic pathogen causing nosocomial infections and resistant to various antibiotics. We aimed to determine the clonal relationship ofC. freundiiisolates using Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE).
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty clinical isolates ofC. freundiiwere collected from the main hospital in Kermanshah. After antibiotic susceptibility testing and screening for extended-spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL), all isolates were genotyped by PFGE. The DNA fragment patterns were analysed using Gelcompar II version 6.6 software. The Dice coefficient was used to calculate similarities for cluster analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PFGE results of 12 (24%) and 38 (76%) ESBL positive and negative isolates, respectively, produced 39 clusters (X1-39) with different genotype patterns. The X1and X2clusters were the major clusters, each contained 3 isolates from different hospital wards. However, the majority of isolates showed a high genotypic diversity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results revealed the genotypic diversity ofC. freundiiisolates indicating the various sources for the bacterial isolates. However, the presence of isolates with similar genotypes indicates the common origin for these strains and may reflect the strain dissemination within the hospital wards, in particular in infectious ward and intensive care unit.
authors.affiliation: School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rezaei
authors.affiliation: Nosocomial Infection Research Centre, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Alisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akya
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Keyghobad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ghadiri
authors.affiliation: Emam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Somayeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jafari
keywords: Citrobacter freundii; Clonal dissemination; PFGE