Microbial diversity and antimicrobial susceptibility in endotracheal tube biofilms recovered from mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients.

In patients with acute respiratory failure, mechanical ventilation through an endotracheal tube (ET) may be required to correct hypoxemia and hypercarbia. However, biofilm formation on these ETs is a risk factor for infections in intubated patients, as the ET can act as a reservoir of microorganisms that can cause infections in the lungs. As severely ill COVID-19 patients often need to be intubated, a better knowledge of the composition of ET biofilms in this population is important. In Spring 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, 31 ETs were obtained from COVID-19 patients at Ghent University Hospital (Ghent, Belgium). Biofilms were collected from the ET and the biofilm composition was determined using culture-dependent (MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and biochemical tests) and culture-independent (16S and ITS1 rRNA amplicon sequencing) approaches. In addition, antimicrobial resistance was assessed for isolates collected via the culture-dependent approach using disc diffusion for 11 antimicrobials commonly used to treat lower respiratory tract infections. The most common microorganisms identified by the culture-dependent approach were those typically found during lung infections and included both presumed commensal and potentially pathogenic microorganisms like

Informations de copyright

© 2022 The Authors.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Frits van Charante reports financial support was provided by Special Research Fund Ghent University. Tom Coenye reports financial support was provided by the European Union Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program. Given his role as Senior Editor, Tom COENYE had no involvement in the peer review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to Akos KOVACS.