distribution of the pathogenicity islands markers (pais) in uropathogenic e.coli isolated from children in mofid children hospital

background uropathogenic escherichia coli (upec) is a causative agent of most of urinary tract infections (utis), which expresses a multitude of virulence factors. objectives the aim of this study was to investigate virulence associated characteristics characteristics in upec isolates derived from urine specimens, and to investigate the distribution of the pathogenicity islands virulence markers (pais) among the isolates in relation to their antibiotic susceptibility pattern. patients and methods a total of 50 e.coli isolates were collected from patients with uti during 2009 to august 2010. biochemical and standard microbiological techniques were used to identify e.coli followed by screening for islands by polymerase chain reaction (pcr). results we found a high number of pai markers such as pai icft073, pai iicft073, pai i536, pai iv536, pai ii j96, and pai ii536 significantly associated with upec. high level of resistance to aztreonam, co-trimoxazole, cefpodoxime, and cefotaxime was found among the upec isolates. conclusions this observation is of special value considering that the upec pathotype constitutes an emerging group of enteropathogens, particularly, in our county. knowledge of the molecular details of uropathogenic e.coli is useful to develop successful strategies for the treatment of urinary tract infection and complications associated with utis in human.