investigation of antimicrobial resistance pattern among escherichia coli strains isolated from patients referred to amir al-momenin hospital, gerash, iran

Background: antibiotic resistance is now considered as a global problem. due to the increasing use of antibiotics, and subsequent increase in antibiotic resistance, treatment of bacterial infections has faced many difficulties. objectives: this study aimed to investigate the pattern of antibiotic resistance in escherichia coli (e. coli) isolated from patients referred to the hospital during the years 2016 - 2018. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 2250 samples were taken from outpatient and hospitalized patients (inpatients) during three years (2016 - 2018). after collection, the specimens were cultured in blood agar and emb media. one thousand six hundred and forty-two positive samples were obtained that from these, a number of 1067 specimens were recognized as e. coli. antibiotic susceptibility was determined using a disk diffusion method on mueller hinton agar media for eight antibiotics. the result was evaluated based on the clinical laboratory standards institute (clsi). results: in this study, 1642 positive samples were diagnosed that the largest isolated strains were associated with e. coli (65%). about 241 samples belonged to men (22.6%) and 826 samples were isolated from women (77.4%). based on the findings, most cases of resistance were related to co-trimoxazole with 52.6% and the highest sensitivity was related to nitrofurantoin with 81%. conclusions: the results of this study indicated that the pattern of antimicrobial resistance is increasing and urinary tract infection (uti) caused by e. coli isolates with a high rate of resistance still remains an important healthcare problem. therefore, continuous evaluation of the pattern of resistance in different areas is necessary for promotion of antibacterial management.