الخلاصة

Acinetobacter spp. have risen as important pathogens in medicinal services related contaminations. Carbapenems are vital antimicrobial agents for treating diseases due to multidrug resistant Acinetobacter spp. Resistance to these drugs in the genus, may beconferred by different mechanisms particularly production of class D carbapenemases. OXA-23-like family has been brought up as one of the dominating carbapenemases among Acinetobacter. The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence of OXA-23-like carbapenemases among Acinetobacterisolatesrecovered from patients of hospitals in Babylon, Iraq. Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were determined by disk-diffusion method.Imipenem resistant isolates were submitted to Modified Hodge Test and Double Disk Synergy Test to screen for carbapenemase generation, and later to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to explore the presence of blaOXA-23 genes . One (10%) of isolates was observed to be imipenem and meropenem resistant (MIC > 512 μg/ml). 6(60%) gave positive results with the imipenem-EDTA disk and Modified Hodge test ; 4 isolates (40%) as indicated by PCR results, carried the blaOXA-23 genes. OXA-23-like enzymes might be a critical component of carbapenem resistance among isolates present in the hospitals studied