title: Heterogeneity in susceptibility to metronidazole among Helicobacter pylori isolates from patients with gastritis or peptic ulcer disease.
abstract: Combination therapies that include metronidazole (MTZ) are the most successful therapies used in eradicating Helicobacter pylori. In this study, the prevalence and the relevance of heterogeneity in susceptibility to MTZ among H. pylori populations of 156 patients were evaluated. The results of this study show that 37 patients (24%) were infected with MTZ-resistant H. pylori (MIC > or = 8 micrograms/ml). Furthermore, 33% (52 of 156) of the patients were found to be infected with H. pylori populations heterogeneous for their susceptibility to MTZ. The reassessment of the MICs of MTZ for these 52 H. pylori populations revealed MTZ resistance in 28 of them, increasing the number of MTZ-resistant H. pylori populations among the 156 patients to 65 (42%). Out of 20 isolates, 2 (10%) heterogeneous in their susceptibility to MTZ also appeared to be heterogeneous at the genome level as determined by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting. In conclusion, the results show the limitations and risk of possible misinterpretations when only a single colony, picked from the primary H. pylori populations isolated from patients, is analyzed for its susceptibility to MTZ.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Weel
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: van der Hulst
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gerrits
authors.forename: G N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Tytgat
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Ende
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dankert
mesh_terms: D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005756:Gastritis / Q000382:microbiology*; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008795:Metronidazole / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D008795:Metronidazole