From 2018 to 2020, 397 patients undergoing gastroscopy were enrolled in this study to have their gastric specimens cultured. A total of 157 H. pylori strains were isolated from these patients, giving a positive culturing rate of 38.5%. A total of 153 strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. The baseline characteristics of these patients with susceptibility testing are shown in Table 1 and Table S1. Among them, the number of men and women was 74 and 79, respectively, and their mean age was 48.9 years. Most of these patients are Tibetans and come from Lhasa city. Among these patients, 133 suffered from chronic gastritis or duodenitis, and 45 suffered from peptic ulcers.
Table 1
Characteristics of the 153 patients with antibiotic susceptibility testing of H. pylori isolates
Variables
|
Patients (n = 153)
|
Age (y)
|
48.9
|
Gender
|
|
Male/female
|
74/79
|
Ethnicity
|
|
Tibetan/Han/Hui nationality
|
150/2/1
|
Region
|
|
Lhasa/Chamdo/Nyingchi/Nakqu/Shigatse/Lhokha/Undetermined
|
118/4/8/10/5/3/5
|
Endoscopic findings
|
|
Reflux esophagitis
|
16
|
Chronic Gastritis/duodenitis
|
133
|
Peptic ulcer
|
45
|
Gastric malignancy
|
2
|
Individual antibiotic resistance rate
To obtain a better understanding of antibiotic resistance in these H. pylori strains, we first counted the MIC distributions (Figure 1, Table S1). For MTZ, almost two-thirds of the strains had MIC values of 256 mg/L, while the MICs of other one-thirds of the strains were uniformly distributed: 0.25-8 mg/L (n = 22) and 12-192 mg/L (n = 31), giving a very high MTZ resistance rate (86.2%). The MIC values against CLR, LEV and RIF were distributed widely. For the MIC values against CLR, 109 strains had MICs ≤ 0.25 mg/L, two strains had MICs of 0.32 and 0.5 mg/L, 19 strains had MICs in the range of 0.75-8 mg/L, and 25 strains had MICs from 12 to 256 mg/L. As for LEV, the strains had MICs of 0.023-0.75 mg/L (n = 106), 1.5-12 mg/L (n = 14), and 32 mg/L (n = 34). With regard to the MICs against RIF, the MIC values were more evenly distributed as follows: ≤ 1 mg/L (n = 41), 1.5-4 mg/L (n = 63) and 6-32 mg/L (n = 49) (Figure 1). The MIC values showed that among the 153 H. pylori strains, the CLR, LEV and RIF resistance rates were 27.4%, 31.3%, and 73.2%, respectively (Figure 2).
The overall antibiotic resistance rate to AML was 15.6%. Among the 24 AML-resistant strains, 11 strains had MICs of 0.19-0.25 mg/L, 11 had MICs of 0.38-0.5 mg/L, and the remaining 2 had MIC values of 1 mg/L and 4 mg/L. All 153 H. pylori strains were TET susceptible, with most of them having MIC values in the range of 0.016-0.125 mg/L (Figure 1, Figure 2). Using the 100 μg-FZD disk, 152 strains (99.4%) exhibited sensitivity to FZD, and 1 strain with inhibition zone diameter of 15 mm exhibited resistance to FZD (Figure 2).
Multiple antibiotic resistance
Of the 153 H. pylori strains isolated from Tibet, only 3 (2.0%) were susceptible to all the seven tested antibiotics, 28 (18.3%) were resistant to one antibiotic (1 to CLR, 2 to LEV, 20 to MTZ, and 5 to RIF), and 68 (44.4%) exhibited dual resistance (including 51 to MTZ + RIF). MDR was observed in 54 (35.3%) strains, encompassing 28 (18.3%), 19 (12.4%), and 7 (4.6%) strains resistant to three, four and five antibiotics, respectively. Among the strains with triple and quadruple resistance, 10 were resistant to CLR + MTZ + RIF, and 9 were resistant to CLR + LEV + MTZ + RIF. All the seven strains showing quintuple resistance were resistant to CLR + LEV + MTZ + AML + RIF. Notably, simultaneous resistance to CLR and MTZ was found in 37 (24.1%) strains, including dual, triple, quadruple and quintuple resistant strains (Table 2).
Table 2
Resistance patterns among the 153 H. pylori isolates
Resistance patterns
|
n (%)
|
None resistance
|
3 (2.0)
|
Mono resistance
|
|
CLR
|
1 (0.6)
|
LEV
|
2 (1.3)
|
MTZ
|
20 (13.1)
|
RIF
|
5 (3.3%)
|
Dual resistance
|
|
CLR + RIF
|
3 (1.9%)
|
CLR+ MTZ
|
1 (0.6%)
|
CLR + LEV
|
1 (0.6%)
|
LEV + MTZ
|
6 (3.9%)
|
LEV + RIF
|
4 (2.6%)
|
MTZ + RIF
|
51 (33.3%)
|
MTZ + FZD
|
1 (0.6%)
|
AML + RIF
|
1 (0.6%)
|
Triple resistance
|
|
CLR + LEV + MTZ
|
4 (2.6%)
|
MTZ + AML + RIF
|
5 (3.3%)
|
LEV + MTZ + RIF
|
7 (4.6%)
|
CLR + MTZ + RIF
|
10 (6.5%)
|
CLR + MTZ + AML
|
1 (0.6%)
|
CLR + LEV + RIF
|
1 (0.6%)
|
Quadruple resistance
|
|
CLR + LEV + MTZ + RIF
|
9 (5.9%)
|
CLR + LEV + MTZ + AML
|
1 (0.6%)
|
LEV + MTZ + AML + RIF
|
5 (3.3%)
|
CLR + MTZ + AML + RIF
|
3 (1.9%)
|
CLR + LEV + MTZ + AML
|
1 (0.6%)
|
Quintuple resistance
|
|
CLR + LEV + MTZ + AML + RIF
|
7 (4.6%)
|
CLR, clarithromycin; LEV, levofloxacin; MTZ, metronidazole; AML, amoxicillin; TET, tetracycline; RIF, rifampicin; FZD, furazolidone.
Factors influencing antibiotic resistance
By comparing the resistance rates of H. pylori in different genders, ages and endoscopic findings, we found that the resistance rate of H. pylori to LEV was 40.5% and to AML was 21.5% in the female group, which were much higher than those of 21.6% (P = 0.012) and 9.5% (P = 0.040), respectively, in the male group. In patients aged 18-40, 41-55, and ≥ 56 years, the resistance rates to CLR (17.6% vs. 27.4% vs. 35.7%), MTZ (82.3% vs. 85.2% vs. 92.8%), AML (11.7% vs. 15.7% vs. 17.8%), and RIF (70.5% vs. 72.2% vs. 78.5%) tended to increase, but there was no significant difference. Furthermore, discrepancies in resistance rates to antibiotics were also observed between patients with non-peptic ulcer and peptic ulcer diseases, but this was not statistically significant (Table 3). Thus, we can conclude that gender is the factor significantly associated with resistance to LEV and AML in H. pylori isolates from Tibet, China.
Table 3
Resistance comparisons of H. pylori isolates from patients with different genders, ages, and endoscopic findings
|
Gender (n, %)
|
|
Age (n, %)
|
|
Endoscopic findings (n, %)
|
|
Antibiotic
|
Male
(n = 74)
|
Female
(n = 79)
|
P
|
18-40
(n = 17)
|
41-55
(n = 108)
|
≥ 56
(n = 28)
|
P
|
NPU
(n = 108)
|
PU
(n = 45)
|
P
|
Clarithromycin
|
17 (22.9)
|
25 (31.6)
|
0.193
|
3 (17.6)
|
29 (27.4)
|
10 (35.7)
|
0.415
|
33 (31.1)
|
9 (20.0)
|
0.163
|
Levofloxacin
|
16 (21.6)
|
32 (40.5)
|
0.012 *
|
7 (41.1)
|
34 (31.5)
|
7 (25.0)
|
0.525
|
37 (34.3)
|
11 (24.4)
|
0.233
|
Metronidazole
|
62 (83.7)
|
70 (88.6)
|
0.386
|
14 (82.3)
|
92 (85.2)
|
26 (92.8)
|
0.508
|
95 (88.0)
|
37 (82.2)
|
0.347
|
Amoxicillin
|
7 (9.5)
|
17 (21.5)
|
0.040*
|
2 (11.7)
|
17 (15.7)
|
5 (17.8)
|
0.862
|
15 (13.9)
|
9 (20.0)
|
0.344
|
Rifampicin
|
54 (72.9)
|
58 (73.4)
|
0.951
|
12 (70.5)
|
78 (72.2)
|
22 (78.5)
|
0.770
|
76 (70.4)
|
36 (80.0)
|
0.220
|
NPU, non-peptic ulcer; PU, peptic ulcer.