Epidemiological and Virulence Characteristics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains Isolated from a Variety of Isolation Sites

The incidence and relative frequency of hospital-acquired Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection have increased during the last decades. The virulence of P. aeruginosa is multifactorial and is the product of many interacting variables, involving both the bacterium and the host. In addition to cell-associated factors, P. aeruginosa elaborates a number of exoenzymes, including phospholipase C or heat-labile hemolysin (HE). The aim of this study was to determine the in vitro production of HE among phenotypically and genotypically different P. aeruginosa strains isolated from a variety of clinical isolation sites.