Abstract

BACKGROUND: Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is an opportunistic pathogen that could be resistant to many antimicrobial agents. Resistance genes can be carried among gram-negative bacteria by integrons. Enzymatic inactivation is the most important mechanism of resistance to aminoglycosides. In this study, the frequencies of two important resistance gene aac(6')-IIa and ant(2'')-I, and genes coding integrase I and II, in K. pneumoniae isolates resistant to aminoglycosides were evaluated. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, an attempt was made to assess the antibiotic susceptibility of 130 K. pneumoniae isolates obtained from different samples of patients hospitalized in training hospitals of Yazd evaluated by disk diffusion method. The frequencies of aac(6')-IIa, ant(2'')-I, intl1, and intl2 genes were determined by PCR method. Data were analyzed by chi-square method using SPSS software (Ver. 16). RESULTS: our results showed that resistance to gentamicin, tobramycin, kanamycin, and amikacin were 34.6, 33.8, 43.8, and 14.6, respectively. The frequencies of aac (6')-IIa, ant(2'')-I, intl1, and intl2 genes were 44.6, 27.7, 90, and 0, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study showed there are high frequencies of genes coding aminoglycosides resistance in K. pneumoniae isolates. Hence, it is very important to monitor and inhibit the spread of antibiotic resistance genes.