title: Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in eighty clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Internistica Clinica e Sperimentale 'F. Magrassi' Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, II Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italia.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Iovene
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Pilloni
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Montella
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caliendo
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Tufano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents