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…

Development of a new DNA extraction protocol for PFGE typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex

A modified pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) protocol was developed and applied to clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex to reduce the cost of using lyticase. This protocol reduces the expense of PFGE typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex as it removes the use of lyticase during the spheroplast formation from these bacteria.

Professor Caterina Mammina, 1957-2016