[Helicobacter pylori antibiotic sensitivity by microdilution]

The gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori has been recognized as the major aetiologic agent of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcers and also a risk factor for gastric cancer; eradication of H pylori prevents peptic ulcer recurrence and may also decrease the prevalence of gastric cancer in high risk populations around the world. Currently the only accepted indication for treatment is ulcer disease and maltosa, infected with Helicobacter pilory. However treatment is difficult and easily develops resistance. The elaboration of an antibiotic profile is recommended after a treatment failure. There is a lack of information in developing countries so the aim of this work was to determine the antibiotic profile of 51 strains isolated from patients gastric biopsies attended at Hospital San Juan de Dios in Costa Rica, using egg yolk broth and finding a resistance of 63.0% to metronidazole with a breakpoint of 8.0 microg/ml and 20.0% resistance to tetracycline (MIC1.0 microg/ml), 6.0% to clarithromicyn with a MIC of 0.125 microg/ml. There was no resistance to amoxicilin (MIC 0.015 microg/ml). The microdilution technique is very laborious, but highly reproducible with results accordingly to previous work, and we recommended it for the designing of therapeutical scheme.