Diagnostic performance of the culture and susceptibility of helicobacter pylori in peruvian patients: Results from a sentinel laboratory

Objective: To analyze the antimicrobial susceptibility of Helicobacter pylori to 5 reference antibiotics, in a population of 500 dyspeptic patients from the Gastroenterology Service of the Cayetano Heredia Hospital (n = 419) and the Cayetano Heredia Clinic (n = 81) in Lima, Peru. Materials and methods: Gastric biopsies were collected from 500 patients diagnosed with dyspepsia. From these biopsies, 273 H. pylori strains were isolated and cultured to confirm H. pylori infection by histological and culture diagnosis. Finally, antimicrobial susceptibility was analyzed using the broth microdilution method, and the resistance profiles of each antimicrobial and multi-resistance patterns were evaluated by statistical analysis. Results: The diagnosis of H. pylori infection by culture, compared to histological testing, reported a sensitivity of 83.8%, a specificity of 89.9% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.84 to 0.90). The frequency of infection in the gastroenterology services of the Cayetano Heredia Hospital and Clinic was 56.6% (237/419) and 44.4% (36/81), respectively. An increase in antimicrobial resistance to Amoxicillin (45.1% / 29.6%), Levofloxacin (71.8%/ 74.1%) and Metronidazole (69.8% / 63.0%) was found in the Hospital and the Clinic, respectively. Multiple resistance patterns showed that the most frequent resistance (double and triple) was to Levofloxacin, Metronidazole and Amoxicillin. Conclusions: The antimicrobial resistance of H. pylori has increased compared to that reported in previous years. Furthermore, H. pylori multiple resistance presents high frequencies in infected patients. The broth microdilution method could be implemented in different hospitals in Peru as a surveillance tool for H. pylori antimicrobial resistance.