Uropathogen Resistance: Are Laboratory-Generated Data Reliable Enough?

Abstract

Therapy of uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) is based on knowledge of in vitro susceptibility profiles of uropathogens in the geographic region. Microbiological surveillance systems, which lack epidemiological and clinical data to differentiate between complicated and uncomplicated UTI may incorrectly estimate rates of resistance in the community. We determined the susceptibility profile of bacteria isolated from a random sample of 124 adult outpatients with diagnosis of uncomplicated UTI and we compared it with all outpatient urine specimens collected by the same participant laboratories during the same period. Escherichia coli was the most frequently isolated uropathogen in patients with uncomplicated UTI, and its rate of resistance to different antimicrobials was lower than overall resistance rates to E. coli reported by the participating laboratories during the same period. Resistance to cotrimoxazole was significantly lower. These results suggest that surveillance systems without clinical and epidemiological data may incorrectly gauge uropathogen resistance in the community.

Keywords:

• Urinary tract infection
• uncomplicated
• bacteria
• bacterial resistance