en Epidemiologic Studies Epidemiologic Studies مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <span style="font-size:10pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="background:#2d7f8f"><span style="color:white">Background & Objective:</span></span></span></b><b> </b><b>&nbsp;</b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="color:black">Dissemination of multiple drug-resistant <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> in hospitals, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs), may lead to serious outcomes. We aimed to investigate clonal relatedness and the presence of carbapenemase genes in clinical <i>A. baumannii</i> isolated during a hospital outbreak.</span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:10pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="background:#2d7f8f"><span style="color:white"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">&nbsp;Materials & Methods:</span></span></span></span></b> &nbsp;<span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="color:black"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">From October to December 2020, 41 <i>A. baumannii</i> were isolated from patients hospitalized in the ICUs of a university hospital in Kermanshah, western Iran. The sensitivity of isolates to antimicrobial agents was evaluated. The polymerase chain reaction determined the presence of OXA carbapenemases and metallo beta-lactamases. The genetic relationships of isolates were determined using the Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) sequences analysis followed by the Pasteur multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme.</span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:10pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="background:#2d7f8f"><span style="color:white">Results: </span></span></span></b><b>&nbsp;</b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="color:black"><span style="letter-spacing:-.1pt">All 41 isolates showed resistance to carbapenem meropenem. The <i>bla</i>_VIM gene was found in all isolates. Of the 41 isolates, 85.4% carried <i>bla</i>_OXA-24 and 48.8% <i>bla</i>_OXA-23. No isolate harbored <i>bla</i>_OXA-58. Twenty-three isolates (56.1%) had the IS<i>Aba1 </i>upstream of the <i>bla</i>_OXA-51-likegene. All isolates showed multidrug resistance. ERIC typing revealed the genetic relatedness of isolates. MLST showed that some isolates belonged to sequence type (ST) 415.</span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:10pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="background:#2d7f8f"><span style="color:white">Conclusion: </span></span></span></b><b>&nbsp;</b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="color:black">The results showed a high level of resistance and clonal spread of <i>A. baumannii</i> in our hospital&#39;s ICUs. ST415 might be an emerging <i>A. baumannii</i> lineage carrying carbapenem resistance determinants, and creating awareness regarding preventing this ST may be necessary. Characterization of antimicrobial resistance and determination of genotypes will help track the recurrent episodes of infections with the described <i>A. baumannii</i> isolates.</span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Drug resistance, beta-Lactamases, Molecular typing, OXA carbapenemase, Clonal spread 466 476 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-7109-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Kambiz Feyzi kambizfeyzi@yahoo.com 5200319475328460082364 5200319475328460082364 No Student Research Committee, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Afra Hosseinpanahi afra.hoseinpanahi@gmail.com 5200319475328460082365 5200319475328460082365 No Lung Diseases and Allergy Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Safoura Derakhshan s.derakhshan@muk.ac.ir 5200319475328460082366 5200319475328460082366 Yes Environmental Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.