Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Eighty Clinical Isolates of Helicobacter pylori

• Published in: Chemotherapy (Basel) Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 8 - 14
• Main Authors: Iovene, M.R., Romano, M., Pilloni, A.P., Giordano, B., Montella, F., Caliendo, S., Tufano, M.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Karger 01.01.1999; S. Karger AG
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibacterial agents; Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents; Biological and medical sciences; Drug Resistance, Microbial; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Female; Helicobacter Infections - microbiology; Helicobacter pylori; Helicobacter pylori - drug effects; Helicobacter pylori - isolation & purification; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Microbial Sensitivity Tests - methods; Microbiology; Middle Aged; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Helicobacter pylori; E-test; Antimicrobialresistance; Human; Spirillales; Drug susceptibility test; Spirillaceae; Bacteria; Antibacterial agent; In vitro; Clinical isolate
• DOI: 10.1159/000007159
• ISSN: 0009-3157

We studied the in vitro susceptibility of 80 Helicobacter pylori clinical isolates to several antimicrobials commonly used to treat the infection, using the Epsilometer test (E-test). We also compared E-test and disk diffusion test in determining H. pylori susceptibility to the same antibiotics. We found a high prevalence of H. pylori strains resistant to metronidazole (23.7%), whereas the prevalence of H. pylori strains resistant to clarithromycin was 10%. Also, a significant correlation was found between MICs obtained with the disk diffusion test and E-test for metronidazole and clarithromycin. In conclusion, our study confirms a high prevalence of metronidazole- or clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori strains. Also, our data suggest that the E-test is a single, reliable, and cost-effective method to assess in vitro susceptibility of H. pylori to antimicrobial agents commonly used to eradicate the infection.