Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 03 1995, 513-518, Vol 33, No. 3
FP Laing, K Ramotar, RR Read, N Alfieri, A Kureishi, EA Henderson and TJ Louie
Between April 1992 and December 1993, 80 Xanthomonas maltophilia isolates
were collected from 63 patients in three acute-care hospitals in Calgary,
Alberta, Canada. On the basis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
definitions, 48 patients had nosocomial and 15 had community-acquired X.
maltophilia. Thirty-eight of the patients were colonized and 25 were
infected. Sixty-four percent of patients who acquired X. maltophilia in the
intensive care unit (ICU) became infected, whereas 32% of patients in a
non-ICU setting became infected. ICU patients tended to be hospitalized for
a shorter period of time than non-ICU patients before the onset of X.
maltophilia infection. Regardless of being colonized or infected, all
patients had debilitating conditions, with respiratory disease being the
most common underlying illness (35%). Forty-two patients (88%) with
hospital- acquired X. maltophilia received prior antibiotic therapy which
included gentamicin, tobramycin, ceftazidime, piperacillin, and imipenem.
Agar dilution MICs showed that patient isolates were resistant to these
antimicrobial agents that patients had received. Pulsed-field gel
electrophoresis of SpeI-digested genomic DNA revealed that six
epidemiologically linked patient isolates from the ICU of one acute-care
hospital had identical DNA profiles. In contrast, isolates from patients
from the other two hospitals had unique genotype profiles (n = 57)
regardless of the presence or absence of an epidemiologic association. In
these patients there was genetic evidence against the acquisition of a
resident hospital clone. These results indicate that pulsed-field gel
electrophoresis can resolve genotypically distinct strains of X.
maltophilia and, consequently, is a useful tool for evaluating nosocomial
infections caused by X. maltophilia.
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Molecular epidemiology of Xanthomonas maltophilia colonization and infection in the hospital environment
Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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