The characteristics and molecular epidemiology of carbapenemase genes amongst 68 imipenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from Imam Reza Hospital (Tabriz, Iran) during a 17-month period were studied. All 68 isolates were typed using sequence group-based multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to compare the clonal relationship of isolates with known international clonal lineages. Repetitive sequence-based PCR was further performed with representative isolates of each clone. PCR and sequencing were performed to detect OXA-type carbapenemases and class 1, 2 and 3 integron genes as well as to confirm the presence of insertion sequence ISAba1 upstream of bla(OXA-23) and bla(OXA-51-like) genes. Sixty-four isolates (94%) belonged to international clone (IC) II, two isolates (3%) belonged to IC I and two isolates (3%) did not belong to known international clones. All isolates carried bla(OXA-51-like), bla(OXA-23) and class 1 integron genes. No other acquired bla(OXA) genes or class 2 or 3 integron genes were detected. Sequence analysis confirmed the presence of bla(OXA-23) as well as the bla(OXA-51-like) variants bla(OXA-66), bla(OXA-69) and bla(OXA-88). ISAba1 was present upstream of the bla(OXA-23) gene in all of the isolates. Clonal spread of OXA-23-producing A. baumannii emphasises the need for appropriate infection control measures to prevent further spread of these multidrug-resistant organisms.
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