Rapid, cost-effective, sensitive and quantitative detection of Acinetobacter baumannii from pneumonia patients

Background and Objectives: Pneumonia with Acinetobacter baumannii has a major therapeutic problem in health care settings. Decision to initiate correct antibiotic therapy requires rapid identification and quantification of organism. The aim of this study was to develop a rapid and sensitive method for direct detection of A. baumannii from respiratory specimens. Materials and Methods: A Taqman real time PCR based on the sequence of blaoxa-51 was designed and used for direct detection of A. baumannii from 361 respiratory specimens of patients with pneumonia. All specimens were checked by conventional bacteriology in parallel. Results: The new real time PCR could detect less than 200 cfu per m…