Objective: To characterize the antibiotic resistance, homology and carbapenemase genotypes of imipenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from our hospital, and analyze the clonal relatedness of the test strains. Methods: Ninety five strains of imipenem resistant A. baumannii were isolated from August 2003 to December 2004 in the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang
... [Show full abstract] University. The MICs of 16 antimicrobial agents against these strains were determined by agar dilution and E-test method. The homology of these isolates was analyzed by pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The coding gene of carbapenemases was amplified. PCR products were purified, cloned and sequenced. Plasmid DNA was extracted and purified. Conjugation and Southern blot were performed to locate the position of oxa-23 gene. Results: The resistance rates to ampicillin-sulbactam and cefoperazone-sulbactam were 67.9% and 30.2%. Polymyxin E had the lowest resistance rate of 17%. The resistance rate to other antimicrobial agents was higher than 90%. The 95 strains, isolated from 10 clinical units, were classified into 6 clones. Clones A and B were predominant clones. All strains produced carbapenemases which were confirmed as OXA-23 by PCR and sequencing analysis. No plasmid was extracted and conjugation was not successful. Southern bolt showed that oxa-23 gene was located on ApaI-digested chromosomal segments about 220 kb and 200 kb in Clones A and B, respectively. Conclusions: OXA-23-producing A. baumannii has become one of the most important multi-resistant pathogens in our hospital. Clones A and B have widely spread in our hospital. Oxa-23 gene is located on chromosomal DNA.