Molecular identification and analysis of clinical Acinetobacter baumannii isolates

Objective The present study was performed to evaluate the accuracy and potential problems of the current clinical identification method for Acinetobacter baumannii. Methods A total of 100 randomly selected isolates clinically identified as A. baumannii were subject to the amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and sequencing of the 16sRNA encoding gene and the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region. Results Five species were identified from the isolates, including A. baumannii (77%), Acinetobacter genomic species 3 (9%), Acinetobacter genomic species 10 (6%), Acinetobacter genomic species 13TU (3%), A. junii (2%), and non-Acinetobacter species (3%). Conclusion The identification accuracy of current clinical laboratories for Acinetobacter baumannii was low, which may compromise the understanding of the epidemiologic characteristics and clinical significance of the different species of Acinetobacter. The effectiveness of clinical identification for the Acinetobacter species should hence be strengthened. This study was funded by major infectious diseases such as AIDS and viral hepatitis prevention and control technology major projects (No.2008ZX10004-002)