Journal
JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 138-146Publisher
DR M N KHAN
DOI: 10.22207/JPAM.16.1.02
Keywords
Diabetic foot ulcer infections; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; biofilm; COVID-19
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigates the most commonly isolated organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility in diabetic foot patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research finds that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant pathogen and highlights the importance of biofilm formation in diabetic foot ulcer infections.
During the different waves of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there has been an increased incidence of diabetes mellitus and diabetic foot infections. Among gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant causative agent for diabetic foot ulcer infections in low-resource countries. P. aeruginosa possesses a variety of virulence factors, including biofilm formation. Biofilm formation is an important benchmark characteristic in the pathophysiology of diabetic foot ulceration. The main objective of the current study was to identify the most commonly isolated organisms and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns in diabetic foot patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also determined the genes associated with bacterial persistence and biofilm formation in the predominantly isolated organism. Accordingly, 100 wound swab samples were collected from diabetic foot patients from different hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt. Through phenotypic detection of biofilm formation, 93% (40) of the 43 P. aeruginosa isolates examined were categorized as biofilm producers. Molecular detection of the biofilm-encoding genes among the 43 P. aeruginosa isolates was as follows: algD (100%), pelF (88%) and pslD (49.7%), and this highlights a need for biofilm formation inhibitors to prevent the persistence of bacterial pathogens, and thus achieve better clinical outcomes in diabetic foot ulcer infections.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available