CORRELATION OF DRUG RESISTANT PATTERN WITH BIOFILM PRODUCTION BY USING MICROTITRE PLATE METHOD IN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE

Health care associated infections (HAIs) are frequently caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) which has a high level of antibiotic resistance pattern and the ability to form biofilms. In this research work, 105 K. pneumoniae was isolated from both inpatients and outpatients between January 2021 and January 2022 at the tertiary care hospital viz, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (MGMCRI), India. The K. pneumoniae isolates were further analysed using morphological analysis of the colonies, microscopic examination, and biochemical testing. The Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method and adhesion quantitative assays were utilized for testing antibiotic susceptibility and biofilm- producing capacity. K. pneumoniae isolates were mostly derived from the urine specimens (42.9%) and pus (19.0%). Most of  the K. pneumoniae were resistant to a wide range of antibiotics and is also well known to the ability to produce biofilm. This study shows that the biofilm producing K. pneumoniae has been a good resistant to Ceftriaxone/Cefotaxime (80.9%), Amikacin (78.7%), Piperacillin+ Tazobactam (79.8%), and Meropenem (79.8%). On the contrary among non- biofilm producing K. pneumoniae also showed good resistant to Gentamicin (87.5%), ciprofloxacin+ Norfloxacin (87.5%), Amikacin 15 (93.8%) and Cefoperazone+ sulbactam 12 (75.0%) of resistance.  Thus, in this study, it was shown that among 105 K. pneumoniae isolates were tested, there were 89 (84.76%) isolates were found to be biofilm producer and 16 (15.2%) isolates were non-biofilm producers. Among biofilm producers, it was shown that there were 36(34.28%) isolates as strong, 42 (40%) isolates as moderate, and 11 (10.47%) isolates identified as weak biofilm producers. The majority of the K. pneumoniae isolates showed resistance to a variety of antibiotics and were capable of producing biofilms