THE SENSITIVITY PATTERN OF URINARY E.COLI ISOLATES TO CEFEPIME WITH DETERMINING MINIMUM INHIBITORY CONCENTRATIONS

Cefepime is one of the fourth generations of cephalosporins known to be active against a wide range of bacteria. Cefepime is usually used for treatment of infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the effect of this antibiotic on clinical E. coli isolates. A total of 100 isolates of E. coli were investigated. The isolates were cultured in Müller - Hinton agar and Minimum inhibitory concentration was determined by cefepime strips using the E-test method. Results were compared with standard table and isolates were determined as resistant، sensitive، or intermediate resistant. E. coli 25922 was used as reference strain. Accordingly، 76% of the isolates were sensitive، 14% were intermediate resistant، 10% were resistant to Cefepime، and 3% of the isolates showed resistance to all tested concentrations. The average minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotic for 97 isolates was 54. 1 ± 17. 8 microgram/mL. Because three of the isolates were resistant to all investigated concentrations of antibiotic، determining the minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotic was impossible for them. High level resistance to Cefepime despite the low consumption of this antibiotic in hospital s in some isolates of E. coli in this study reminded us the necessity to pay attention to cross resistance of this antibiotic with other cephalosporins and to avoid indiscriminate use of these kinds of antibiotics.