Characterization of microbial flora in patients suspected of having urogenital tuberculosis

Abstract

In the structure of tuberculosis morbidity, urogenital tuberculosis (UGT) ranks second or third only to pulmonary tuberculosis. Every fourth patient has the stage of cavern formation at first presentation. Seventy five percent of nephrotuberculosis cases co-occur with nonspecific pyelonephritis, which excludes "sterile pyuria". We aimed to determine the microbial spectrum of urine and gonadal appendages in patients with suspected UGT and to investigate the susceptibility of the isolated microorganisms to the main antibacterial drugs. The study investigated the spectrum of pathogenic microflora isolated from patients admitted to the urogenital clinic of the TB Research Institute from January 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016 to rule out UGT. Microorganism species were identified by time-of-flight mass spectrometry using the microbiological analyzer Phoenix 100 (Becton Dickinson, USA). Antibiotic resistance was determined using the Phoenix 100 microbiological analyzer (Becton Dickinson, USA). A total of 3004 bacteriological tests for nonspecific microflora were performed during the analyzed period. In the structure of pathogens, E. coli comprised about half of the cases thus confirming its role as the leading uropathogen. Only piperacillin/tazobactam and nitrofurantoin provided relatively plausible antimicrobial resistance rates, for other antibacterial drugs the rates of susceptible strains progressively decreased and by 2016 dropped to 40% and lower. Our findings cannot be extrapolated to the entire population since patients presenting for differential diagnosis receive multiple courses of treatment with various antibacterial drugs, which led to the selection of resistant strains. The findings emphasize the need for a strict selection of antibiotics for urogenital infection empirical therapy. In the absence of response, the patient should be immediately examined for tuberculosis using molecular and genetic diagnostic techniques.