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Rationale: Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the antibiotic-resistant superbugs that threatens hospitalized patients. Emergence and spread of the multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) clones cause erratic outbreaks following environmental contamination of hospital settings., Objective: The present study intended to characterize the antimicrobial resistant profiles and the genotypes of clinical and environmental isolates of A. baumannii as a result of dissemination of resistant strains., Methods: Clinical and environmental isolates of A. baumannii were obtained from patients, staff, and environment of an educational hospital in Tehran. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out using the disk diffusion and E-test methods. Multiplex PCR was performed for detection of OXA-type genes (bla OXA-23-like , bla OXA-24-like , bla OXA-58-like , and bla OXA-51-like ). Genotypic relatedness of the isolates was achieved using repetitive extragenic palindromic element PCR (Rep-PCR) technique., Results: All the isolates were found to be susceptible to colistin and most of them (77%) were non-susceptible to tigecycline. A majority of the clinical and environmental isolates (97%) were considered as MDR strains and 41% as XDR. In multiplex detection, bla OXA-23-like was found in 54% of the isolates, which was the most frequent OXA-type gene. In addition, the frequency of the carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) was observed to be high (96%). In addition, molecular typing showed different Rep patterns of clinical isolates and clonal spread of environmental isolates., Conclusion: The present study highlights the circulation of drug-resistant A. baumannii strains in different wards of hospitals principally in intensive care unit (ICU) as a nosocomial pathogen due to unwise managements., (Copyright © 2018 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Early, accurate and effective diagnosis of toxoplasmosis can make an important contribution to the prevention and control of disease, especially in people who are at risk. In this study, two commonly used genomic repeats of Toxoplasma gondii, RE (GenBank accession number AF146527) and B1, were compared to each other in nested-PCR assay. Five hundred and thirty-five blood samples from children with leukemia were tested for the presence of T. gondii antibodies using enzyme immunoassays. One hundred and ten DNA samples of these patients (50 IgM+, IgG+, 10 IgM-, IgG+, and 50 IgM-, IgG-) were analyzed by nested-PCR. The specificity of two nested PCR assays was determined using the DNA samples of other parasites and human chromosomal DNA. As a result, 82% (41/50) and 68% (34/50) of the IgM+, IgG+ samples were positive on duplicate RE and B1-nested PCR analyses, respectively. None of the 10 IgM-, IgG+ seropositive samples was detected positive after testing RE and B1-nested PCR assays in duplicate. One (2%) of the 50 seronegative samples was positive by duplicate RE-nested PCR but none of them were positive by duplicate B1-nested PCR. The detection limit of the RE-nested PCR assay was 640 fg of T. gondii DNA whereas this rate for B1-nested PCR was 5.12 pg of the DNA template. No cross-reactivity with the DNA of other parasites and human chromosomal DNA was found. The results indicate that an RE-based nested PCR assay is more sensitive than B1 genomic target, of those tested, for detection of T. gondii. It is noteworthy that in comparison with B1-nested PCR, RE-nested PCR could detect the T. gondii DNA in seronegative samples too., (© 2013.)