Genetic relatedness and host specificity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis and non-cystic fibrosis patients Atqah AbdulWahab,1 Saad J Taj-Aldeen,2 Emad Ibrahim,2 Shaikha H Abdulla,3 Ramees Muhammed,3 Irshad Ahmed,3 Yasmine Abdeen,4 Omnia Sadek,4 Marawan Abu-Madi4 1Department of Pediatrics, Hamad Medical Corporation, 2Microbiology Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Hamad Medical Corporation, 3Molecular Biology Unit, Central Food Laboratories, Supreme Council of Health, 4Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the primary pathogens isolated more frequently in cystic fibrosis (CF) and it exhibits innate resistance to a wide range of antibiotics. Purpose: We sought to determine whether the highly prevalent genotypes of P. aeruginosa are specifically linked to CF patients and have any related multidrug antibiotic resistance. Isolates from hospitalized non-CF patients and from environmental sources were also genotypically analyzed. Methods: Collections of P. aeruginosa from lower respiratory secretions