Study of Pseudomonas aeruginosa causing ventilator associated pneumonia

Ps. aeruginosa is a frequent and prominent cause of nosocomial pneumonia especially in persons on assisted ventilation in the intensive care units. In a year long surveillance of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) we isolated 42 strains from broncho alveolar lavage samples collected and processed from 102 patients. By pyocin typing 40 of the 42 strains could be typed into 39 types but this designation changed each time the test was repeated. SDS-PAGE analysis of the whole cell proteins grouped the 42 strains of Ps. aeruginosa into 20 groups. After ribotyping, using an 18 mer DIG labelled oligonucleotide to the conserved region of 16S rRNA gene, the strains were designated into 18 types. The major type contained 8 isolates, but there was no clustering of isolates, indicating that each infecting strain was acquired separately and not from a common source. It would, therefore, appear that cross infection with a single clone was not the predominant mode of Ps. aeruginosa infection causing VAP in our ICU.