Characterization of echerichia coli isolated from patients with urinary tract infections in northern Jordan : antibiotic resistance and plasmid profiles

الملخص EN

Over a one year period a total of 355 uropathogens were isolated from patients with urinary tract infections (UTJ’s) received for consultation at Urology Department at Princess Basma Teaching Hospital, Mad, Jordan.

Rsrherichia coii (£.

soli) was the predominant pathogen ($17%) among all the isolates.

Seventy-three (£.

aali) isolates were analyzed for antimicrobial resistance pattern and plasmid profile.

Sixty-two showed 8 multiple resistance pattern and 5 isolates were susceptible to all antibiotics tested.

Ninety-three percent of the isolates were resistant to ampicillin, 72% to chloramphenicol, 72% to tetracycline, 45% to kaaamycin, and only l%to gentamicin.

All isolates were sensitive to nalidixic acid.Plasmidaaalysis of the tested isolates showed the presence of plasmids rat^g from 27.0 kb to 1.0 kb and isolates contained from 1 to 5 plasmids of different sizes.

There were no consistent relationships between resistance pattern and piasmid profile but the resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline and kammycin was most probably mediated by a plasmid with a molecular weight of 27.0 kb.