Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in eighty clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori

We studied the in vitro susceptibility of 80 Helicobacter pylori clinical i solates to several antimicrobials commonly used to treat the infection, usi ng the Epsilometer test (E-test). We also compared E-test and disk diffusio n 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 clarithromyc in was 10%. Also, a significant correlation was found between MICs obtained with the disk diffusion test and E-test for metronidazole and clarithromyc in. In conclusion, our study confirms a high prevalence of metronidazole or clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori strains. Also, our data suggest that th e E-test is a single, reliable, and cost-effective method to assess in vitr o susceptibility of H. pylori to antimicrobial agents commonly used to erad icate the infection.