Antibiotic resistance and carriage class 1 and 2 integrons in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii from Tehran,Iran

Objective:To investigate antibiotic resistance and carriage class 1 and 2 integrons in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii(A.baumannii)from Tehran,Iran.Methods:Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.The presence of integrons was investigated by PCR using specific primers.Results:Among isolated A.baumannii strains,82%were multidrug resistant,27 samples(54%)were resistant to three or more than three antibiotics and 16 samples(32%)showed resistance to two antibiotics.Integrons were detected from 44 of 50 isolates(88%),with classes 1 and 2 being observed in 42%(21/50)and 82%(41/50)of isolates,respectively.Integron-positive A.baumannii isolates showed higher antibiotic resistance than integron-negative isolates and all showed a multidrug-resistant phenotype.Conclusions:Our findings show that classes 1 and 2 integrons,and especially classes 2 integrons are widely disseminated among A.baumannii strains isolated from Tehran and these structures are playing a major role in the acquisition of multidrug resistance in these strains.So monitoring of drug resistance with investigating carriage class 1 and 2 integrons is very important to plan specific infection control measures due to multidrug resistance A.baumannii in Iran hospitals.