The face of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from clinical samples of two Iranian teaching hospitals

• Published in: Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 58
• Main Authors: Sanikhani, Rahimeh, Moeinirad, Mohammad, Solgi, Hamid, Hadadi, Azar, Shahcheraghi, Fereshteh, Badmasti, Farzad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 31.08.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Abscesses; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Bacterial pneumonia; Clinical isolates; Clonal relatedness; Cloning; Drug resistance; Drug resistance in microorganisms; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Genes; Genotype & phenotype; High resistance; Hospitals; Hospitals, Teaching; Humans; Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumonia; Identification; Identification test; Imipenem; Iran; Iran - epidemiology; Klebsiella; Klebsiella Infections - diagnosis; Klebsiella Infections - epidemiology; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Klebsiella pneumoniae - drug effects; Klebsiella pneumoniae - isolation & purification; Klebsiella pneumoniae - pathogenicity; Laboratories; Methods; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Multidrug resistance; Plasmids; Pneumonia; Potassium; Tellurite; Tellurium dioxide; Virulence Factors - genetics; Iran; Taiwan; Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumonia; Identification test; Clonal relatedness; Antimicrobial resistance
• ISSN: 1476-0711; 1476-0711
• DOI: 10.1186/s12941-021-00467-2

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) has emerged as a pathogen of global concern. In this study, both phenotypic and genotypic tests were used to detect hvKp. Antimicrobial resistance profiles and clonal relatedness of clinical isolates were also determined. We found that 34.2% (163/477) of the isolates were tellurite resistant, and among them 102 hvKp isolates detected with iucA or iutA or peg-344 as molecular markers. The bla (80.4%), followed by bla (76.5%) and bla (67.6%), bla (53.9%), and bla (32.3%) were detected, while bla was not present in any hvKp isolates. It was found that the majority of hvKp isolates belonged to capsular serotype K20 and ompK36 group C, which is related to clonal group (CG) 23 (e.g. ST23). A high percentage of multidrug-resistant hvKp (76.6%) and high resistance to imipenem (67%) indicated a serious problem that should be addressed in the clinical setting.