Ma. Marcos et al., EPIDEMIOLOGIC MARKERS OF ACINETOBACTER-BAUMANNII CLINICAL ISOLATES FROM A SPINAL-CORD INJURY UNIT, The Journal of hospital infection, 28(1), 1994, pp. 39-48
During a period of 28 months, 114 isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii
obtained from urine samples of 57 patients, were recovered in a Spinal
Cord Unit; an unusual increase in the number of A. baumannii isolates
was observed between February 1991 and January 1992. Six different ty
ping methods [biotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility, whole cell and
cell-envelope protein analysis, plasmid analysis and chromosomal DNA a
nalysis by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)] were used to study
the isolates to establish any potential relationships among them. Chr
omosomal DNA analysis by digestion with ApaI and separation of the fra
gments by PFGE was the most powerful tool to determine the relatedness
of isolates. The results suggest that the isolates from 1991 and 1992
may have originated from strains present in 1990 that subsequently ac
quired resistance to amikacin and tobramycin during the epidemic.