Antimicrobial Resistance of Urinary Escherichia coli Isolates

Purpose: To investigate the antimicrobial resistance rate of 110 E. coli strains, isolated from UTIs in Etlik Lokman Hekim Hospital, Etlik, Ankara, Turkey. Methods: API-20E System (bioMerieux, France) was used to identify E. coli isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted on Mueller-Hinton Agar plates (Merck, Germany) using agar disc diffusion method and the results were expressed as susceptible or resistant according to the criteria recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standarts Institute (CLSI). Results: The resistance rates detected were 56 % to ampicillin, 24 % to ampicillin sulbactam, 9 % to gentamicin, 15 % to ciprofloxacin, 36 % to trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole, 12 % to cefazolin, and 7 % to cefuroxime. All isolates tested were susceptible to fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin. Conclusion: When the high resistance rates in Turkey are taken into consideration, antimicrobial agent usage policies and empirical therapies should be based on antimicrobial resistance surveillance studies.