Prevalence of SHV, TEM, CTXM and OXA48 βLactamase Genes in Clinical Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in BandarAbbas, Iran

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most important causes of opportunistic infections. Carbapenems are administrated for the treatment of resistant infections due to this bacterium. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of blaSHV, blaTEM, blaCTXM and blaOXA48 betalactamase genes in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Methods: In this descriptive study, 96 isolates of P. aeruginosa were obtained from clinical samples in Bandar Abbas. All isolates were identified by biochemical tests. The antibiotic susceptibility was examined by disk diffusion method. The presence of blaCTXM, blaSHV, blaTEM and blaOXA48 genes was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction using a specific primer. Results: In this study, 76 isolates of P. aeruginosa (79.2%) were resistant to at least one carbapenem. The highest bacterial resistance (100%) was obtained to nalidixic acid (30 µg), followed by tetracycline (30 µg) and amoxicillin (25 µg). The frequencies of blaCTXM, blaSHV, blaTEM and blaOXA48 genes were 23.95% (23 isolates), 23.08% (26 isolates), 57.29% (55 isolates) and 12.5% (12 isolate), respectively. Sixty isolates resistant to carbapenems (78.9%) carried at least one resistant gene (blaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTXM and blaOXA48) and 16 isolates (21.1%) did not have any of these genes. Conclusions: This study revealed the prevalence of carbapenemresistant phenotype of P. aeruginosa clinical isolates and the frequency of extendedspectrum βlactamase genes have increased.