The prevalence of antimicrobial resistant bacterial pathogens has become a major public health concern. Extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL) production in the members of the family Enterobacteriaceae can confer resistance to extended spectrum cephalosporins such as azetronam and penicillins. Integrons are genetic structures capable of capturing and excising gene cassettes, which usually encode antimicrobial drug resistance determinants. Although integrons are not self mobilizable, they are usually found in association with transposons and are often located on plasmids, facilitating their mobility. This study aimed to know the usefulness of integron as an indicator of the potential dissemination of multidrug resistant Enterobacteriaceae in hospital environment and considerations regarding antimicrobial policy. This study was conducted in Benha University Hospital. 100 clinical samples from different clinical departments wereincluded in the study in order to separate nosocomial Enterobacteriaceae and detect the integrons by polymerase chain reaction sequence specific primer (PCR-SSP). Integrons were found only in ESBL group. Incidence of class 1 integron was high in our Enterobacteriaceae isolates especially Klebsiellae and E. coli which were the most frequent organisms in the study. There is association between integrons and multi drug resistance especially to aminoglycosides and tetracyclins.

Key words: Extended-spectrum β-Lactamase (ESBL), integrons, drug resistant, Enterobacteriaceae, PCR-SSP.