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. 2022 Jan 27;11(2):178.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens11020178.

Increased Antibiotic Resistance in Children with Helicobacter pylori Infection: A Retrospective Study

Luca Helmbold  1 , Beniam Ghebremedhin  2 , Aliyah Bellm  3 , Marc A Hopkins  1 , Stefan Wirth  1 , Malik Aydin  1   4
Affiliations

Increased Antibiotic Resistance in Children with Helicobacter pylori Infection: A Retrospective Study

Luca Helmbold et al. Pathogens. .

Abstract

Children with recurrent abdominal pain may be suffering from a Helicobacterpylori (HP) infection. The gold standard for confirming HP gastritis is histological evaluation and microbiological tests performed on specimens collected by esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). The aim of this study was to analyze HP positive cultures and antibiograms with regard to clinical and histopathological correlates. The data of 124 subjects with frequent gastrointestinal symptoms who underwent an EGD were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 13 ± 3.6 years. The most frequent complaints were epigastric pain (84%; n = 100/119) and dyspepsia (79%; n = 94/119). HP gastritis was diagnosed in 54% (n = 67). Interestingly, 40% (n = 49) of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic: amoxicillin (20%; n = 10/49), clarithromycin (45%; n = 22/49), or metronidazole (59%; n = 29/49). Isolates were resistant to two or more antibiotics in 16% (n = 20) of cases. In conclusion, we revealed remarkably high resistance rates to amoxicillin, metronidazole, and clarithromycin in our cohort. The presence of antibiotic resistance to more than one antibiotic was substantially increased in our HP-infected patients and this may negatively affect eradication treatment.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; abdominal pain; antibiotic resistance; children; gastritis; histopathology; multiple drug resistance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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