[Evaluation of antibiogram pattern of propionibacterium acnes obtained from skin of patients with acne vulgaris]

ABSTRACT

Antibiotics play an important role in treatment of acne. Physicians usually choose the best antibiotics based on their effectiveness, economical impacts, side effects and sometimes drug resistance surveys. In recent years, the latter issue [bacterial resistance] has faced the treatment of acne with some serious problems. This study was designed to illustrate the drug-resistance pattern of Propionibacterium acnes [P.acnes] obtained from patients with Acne vulgaris. In the present study, we tried to illustrate the resistance of P.acnes to common antibiotics used in treatment of acne, applying E-tests antibiogram method. After sampling, culturing and purifying P.acnae, MIC measures were obtained for eight cases of common antibiotics used for each individual patient, by the use of E-test quantitative method. From the total of 88 patients, 25.6% were males and 74.4% were females. The average age was 28.8 years old. According to the results of this survey, 13% of P.acnes strains were resistant to erythromycin, whereas 10.7% were resistant to Clindamycin and 7.1% were to Co-trimoxazole. There was no resistance to other tested antibiotics [Cephalexin, Ampicillin, Minocycline, Doxycyline and Tetracycline]. In general, mono-drug resistance was observed in 8.1% of cases and multi-drug resistance was found in 10.5% of strains. However, these rates are much lower compared to those mentioned in literature. The results of this study is more indicative of the fact that improper use of antibiotics plays an important role in failure of acnae treatment in Iran