Bacterial Profile Associated with Pleural Fluid Disease in Al-Najaf Province/Iraq

Abstract

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a low-virulence opportunistic pathogen that has been identified as an emerging hospital pathogen. Infections caused by S. maltophilia have increased over the years due to increased high-risk patients e.g. patients with immune suppression, hematological malignancies, ICU admission. Therefore this study conducted to characterization and investigation of some virulence factor particularly detection of biofilm formation in order to determinants the role of this bacteria in causing infection in Al- Najaf province. Therefore 250 clinical specimens were collected from plural fluid infection 140 (64.9%) of specimens were collected from male and 110 (35.1%) from female, the specimens were cultured on suitable media and cultivated at 37℃. The results showed that 209 (76.9%) gave bacterial growth while 41 (23.1%) appeared no growth. after identification of bacterial isolate, 20 of isolate were identified S. maltophilia recovered from the different infections, from those 12 of isolates were recovered from male specimens, while 8 from female. TCP method were used to determinant the predominant of the level of biofilm among S. maltophilia isolates, the results of TCP revealed that all isolate 20 (100%) were biofilm formation.