Prevalence and antibiotic resistance among helicobacter pylori clinical isolates from main hospitals in the western region of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns amongst H. pylori clinical strains isolated from the main hospitals in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed for 137 clinical isolates of H. pylori recovered from 368 Saudi patients undergoing endoscopic examination. The antibiotics used were amoxicillin, tetracycline, clarithromycin and metronidazole. A high percentage of resistance were observed against metronidazole [48.2%] followed by clarithromycin [27.7%], amoxicillin [14.6%] and tetracycline [9.5%]. A total of 12 [8.8%] multidrug-resistant H. pylori isolates were observed in this study. Moreover, a warning sign of emerging resistance to amoxicillin, tetracycline and clarithromycin were noted. The clinician need to be aware about resistance pattern in their region when they select empiric antibiotics regimen for H. pylori