Antimicrobial susceptibility of Escherichia coli in patients with urinary tract infection treated in a hospital in Nicaragua in 2021

Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are clinical entities characterized by affecting the kidney, bladder, urethra and prostate in males. Diagnosis is made through urine culture, with Escherichia coli (E. coli) being the most common agent. Antibiotic resistance of this bacterium and other uropathogens represents a significant health issue, making it important to study susceptibility patterns. Therefore, the objective of this research was to describe how the E. coli pathogen behaved in response to 20 antibiotics used in the antibiogram test, in patients who tested positive for UTI through urine culture and who were treated at a hospital in Nicaragua during the year 2021. A descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted, using a quantitative approach. The sources of documentary information were the laboratory record books. The sample units consisted of 134 isolates of E. coli recorded between January and December 2021. Once the data were collected, they were analyzed using SPSS v21. The most affected age group by E. coli was 41 to 60 years old (61.2% of them) and 21 to 40 years old (25.4% of them). There was a predominance of infection in females (85.1%). ESBL was found in 59.0% of the samples. From the panel of 20 sensidiscs, 13 antibiotics showed resistance, with the most frequent being ampicillin at 85.8%, followed by levofloxacin at 78.4%, ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid 77.6%, and amoxicillin+clavulanic acid 63.4%. Resistance to imipenem and meropenem was recorded at 2.2%