Little evidence has been published regarding the antimicrobial resistance patterns of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) strains in Northwestern and Central Romania. The aim of this study was to determine the antibiotic resistance pattern of H. pylori isolates from gastric biopsies collected from patients living in Romania using ETEST® and GenoType HelicoDR. Gastric biopsies were obtained from 148 adult patients, 87 women and 61 men, the majority (131 patients) from Northwestern and Central Romania. Sixty-nine H. pylori strains were detected by both culture and PCR; sixty-three biopsies were negative by both techniques; one biopsy was positive by culture but negative by PCR; and fifteen biopsies were negative by culture but positive by PCR. Primary resistance against clarithromycin, fluoroquinolones, and metronidazole was found in 16.7%, 11.1%, and 13.3% of strains, respectively. No primary resistance has been detected against amoxicillin, tetracycline, and rifampicin. Secondary resistance against clarithromycin, fluoroquinolones, metronidazole, amoxicillin, tetracycline, and rifampicin was found in 75.8%, 30.3%, 65.5%, 1.8%, 1.8%, and 7.3% of the strains, respectively. The most frequent clarithromycin-resistant genotype detected by GenoType HelicoDR was A2147G (62.3%). Concordances between ETEST® and PCR for clarithromycin and fluoroquinolones were 85.5% and 78.3%, respectively. Further investigation of H. pylori resistance should be conducted to ensure proper eradication schemes.
Keywords: ETEST®; GenoType HelicoDr; Helicobacter pylori; Romania; antibiotic resistance.