The resistance of Escherichia coli strains isolated from community-acquired urinary tract infections

Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common infections caused by Escherichia coli. Most recent research demonstrates that antibiotic resistance has reached a critical point throughout the world, as increased use of antibiotics among nonhospitalized patients encourages the growth of drug-resistant pathogens among that population. The goal of this study was to determine the antimicrobial drug resistance of E coli strains isolated from community-acquired UTIs in 5 different regions in Turkey. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ampicillin and for E coli were determined with the agar dilution method. Among the 480 strains isolated, 8.3% were resistant to ciprofloxacin, 3.3% to gentamicin, 35.4% to sulfamethoxazole, 33.3% to trimethoprim, 27.9% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and 40.8% to ampicillin. These results show that the antibiotics currently most effective against E coli are ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. Local epicdemiologic trends should be considered when prescribing antibacterial therapy. More research in bacterial gene mapping will be necessary to elucidate the influence of regional antimicrobial drug use and resistance in epidemiologic trends among the general population.