Virulence determinant and extended spectrum beta-lactamase production in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from a tertiary care hospital, South India

BACKGROUND: Klebsiella pneumoniae on these days show greater resistance towards newer generation cephalosporin. The present study made an effort to show the relevance between ESBL producing K. pneumoniae and virulence determinant in respect to serum resistance and K1, K2 antigens at a tertiary care hospital in South India. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 520 consecutive, non-duplicate isolates of K. pneumoniae were recovered from various clinical specimens such as Urine (n = 360), sputum (n = 107), pus (n = 25), blood (n = 6) and other miscellaneous specimens (n=22) obtained from both out patients and in patients between June 2012 to July 2016 were included in the study. RESULTS: Polymerase Chain Reaction to detect bla genes in 62 isolates phenotypically identified as ESBL producers were successful in 58 (93.54%) isolates. Of the 13 ESBL producing hypermucoviscous Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) strains, 6 of them were showing the amplicons for gene's coding for K1 antigens. CONCLUSION: The study provides further authentication of the global sporadic of bla CTX-M and the relevance between K antigens and serum resistance with ESBL production in our place. As there is no much study available, it also highlights the need for further study of their epidemiological surveillance.