Enterococcal urinary tract infections analyzed at “Cantacuzino” National Research Institute.

Enterococci are one of the important causes of urinary tract infections and are inherently resistant to many antimicrobials, including penicillin, clindamycin, trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole and low levels of aminoglycosides. Moreover, they are poorly responsive to cephalosporins in vivo. The study was carried out in “Cantacuzino” National Research Institute on samples received from community. In order to detect resistance in Enterococcus species, a total of 102 Enterococcus species samples were included in the study. Although Enterococcus faecalis (98.03%) was one of the most common species associated with urinary tract infections, we also identified Enterococcus faecium (1.97%), showing the necessity of species level identification in laboratory settings. There were also isolated enterococci from mixture of two or three bacteria. E. faecalis was sensitive to vancomycin (94.10%), ampicillin (50.98%), penicillin (50.98%), linezolid (97.06%), nitrofurantoin (96.07%), levofloxacin (62.74%), ciprofloxacin (62.74%), chloramphenicol (89.22%) and tetracycline (17.65%), and resistant to gentamycin - high level resistance (25%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]