Biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance profile of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates

• Jaiganeshan Muttiah Velmurugan,  
• Lakshmi Krishnasamy*

Abstract

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the Gram-Negative pathogens, serves a crucial organism in nosocomial outbreaks. The properties of this bacteria including adaptability, biofilm formation, etc. make this organism develop resistance against various antibiotic drugs. The current study aims to screen the multidrug resistant P.aeruginosa isolates for biofilm formation and to study the relationship of drug resistance and development of biofilm. Materials and methods: Clinical samples growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in culture were screened for antibiotic susceptibility pattern using disc diffusion method. The multidrug resistant isolates of P. aeruginosa identified using culture and standard microbiological tests were included in the study and were tested for biofilm formation using micro titre plate assay. Results: Out of the 224 clinical samples growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in culture, 100 isolates were found to be multidrug resistant (MDR).42% of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates showed resistance to Cefepime followed by 26% isolates were resistant to Levofloxacin. 88% of the MDR isolates produced biofilm and among these 75% produced strong biofilm, 10% of the isolates produced weak biofilm and 3% of the isolates produced moderate biofilms. Conclusion: The present study observed that majority of the MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were found to be biofilm producers. Thus, biofilm production is said to be one of the important properties of the organism which could be attributed to their multi drug resistance.

Keywords

Antimicrobial Resistance, P.aeruginosa, Biofilm formation, Nosocomial infection