ABSTRACT:
Acinetobacter spp., is an opportunistic, gram negative and non-fermenter organism, has occurred as one of the maximum bothersome pathogens for health care organisations worldwide. This organism generally targets the most susceptible hospitalized patients causing pneumonia mainly in patients on mechanical ventilation in ICU, having urinary tract infection, bloodstream infections, skin infections etc. It accounts for about 10% of all nosocomial infections. Its clinical significance over last 15 years has been forced by its amazing capacity to get resistant elements, making it one of the antagonistic organisms in the current antibiotic era. Most of Acinetobacter strains are resistant to all known antibiotics have been reported and they are acting in interaction with this emerging resistance profile, with this ability. Acinetobacter isolatesare able to survive for long periods throughout the hospital environment.Itrecurrently causes infections associated with medical devices, e.g. vascular catheters, cerebrospinal fluid shunts, urinary catheter or an endotracheal tube. Microbial biofilms are considered as virulence factors and is a well-known pathogenic mechanism in such infections. The ability to form biofilms on biotic or abiotic surfaces is a common trait among Acinetobacter strains. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to study antibiotic resistance patterns and association the resistance profile with bio-film production in various clinical isolates of Acinetobacter spp. A total of 35 isolates of Acinetobacter species were obtained for study from various clinical specimens like pus, urine, sputum, blood culture specimens from the patients admitted in hospital. Isolates obtained from different medical specimens were managed and confirmed by conservative microbiological procedures. The isolates of Acinetobacter are identified on the basis of certain biochemical test like catalase positive, oxidase negative, urease negative, nitrate negative, indole negative and non-motility test. A total of 35 isolates were subjected to susceptibility testing by disc diffusion method according to CLSI guidelines for 14 clinically relevant antibiotics. Screening for biofilm production was done quantitatively by micro titre plate assay method. In the present study, 75 % isolates were showing antibiotic resistance and 22.8% isolates produced bio film along with antibiotic resistance. Biofilm formers isolates showed high resistance to imipenem, cephotaxime, ceftazidime, tobramycin, ciprofloxacin as compared to non-biofilm formers. We selected to study the biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance of clinical isolates of Acinetobacter species to understand its ability to persist in the hospital environment to cause outbreaks.