A comparative assay of epidemiological markers for Acinetobacter strains isolated in a hospital.

Summary A comparative assay for epidemiological evaluation of three different Acinetobacter typing procedures, i.e. biotyping, phagetyping, and the analysis of the bacterial envelope protein profiles, was carried out using sixty-four multiresistant Acinetobacter strains isolated from clinical specimens. The antibiotic susceptibility of the strains was also considered. After genospecies identification, biotyping allowed the recognition of a relatively large and long-lasting presence, at an Intenive Therapy Unit, of two A. baumannii biotypes. Phage-typing and the analysis of the susceptibility to antibiotics allowed for the differentiation of strains belonging to different genospecies and bio…