Authors : Kalaivani Ramakrishnan, Jenitha Johnsi P, Seetha K.S
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijmr.2019.023
Volume : 6
Issue : 2
Year : 2019
Page No : 109-112
Introduction: Klebsiella spp. is well known hospital as well as community acquired bacterial pathogen. It is prone to cause severe pyogenic infections like bronchopneumonia, UTI, nosocomial infection, wound infection, septicaemia, meningitis, and rarely diarrhoea leading to marked fatality rate. Klebsiella spp. primarily attack immunocompromised individuals who are hospitalized and suffering from severe underlying diseases such as diabetes mellitus, chronic pulmonary obstruction and others. By acquiring various enzymes and virulence factors, it worsens patient’s life. Thus we aimed to detect various virulence factors among the clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae.
Aim: To study the prevalence of various virulence factors among Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates.
Materials and Methods: Total of 115 clinical isolates of Klebsiella spp. from various clinical samples during January 2015 to June 2015 were included. Virulence factors includes biofilm formation, lipase, lecithinase, haemagglutination, protease, gelatinase, haemolysis and hypermucoviscosity were detected by standard technique.
Result: Out of 115 isolates, 55% and 45% of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were from female and male patients. Majority of isolates were isolated from urine samples (67%) followed by 27% exudate, sputum 19% and blood 17%. Among these, 79% showed biofilm formation, 58% haemagglutination and lipase formation, 56% lecithinase, 44% protease, 41% gelatinase production and 7% hypermucoviscosity. More than 3 virulence factors were observed in 93% of isolates.
Conclusion: Presence of multiple virulence factors increases pathogenic ability leading to therapeutic challenges. Among various virulence factors, biofilm formation, lecithinase and phospholipase was found to be the predominant virulence factors among the Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates.
Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Virulence factors, Gram negative bacteria, Phenotypic method, Virulence detection.