Lab Med Online.  2016 Apr;6(2):79-87. 10.3343/lmo.2016.6.2.79.

Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum and Ureaplasma parvum in Individuals With or Without Symptoms of Genitourinary Infections

• Kweon OJ
• Lim YK
• Oh SM
• Kim TH
• Choe HS
• Lee SJ
• Cho YH
• Lee MK

• KMID: 2160088
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/lmo.2016.6.2.79

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum, and Ureaplasma parvum among patients displaying symptoms of genitourinary infections and asymptomatic volunteers.
METHODS
Genitourinary samples were collected from 897 participants (365 symptomatic patients and 532 asymptomatic volunteers). The samples were analyzed using multiplex real-time PCR (Anyplexâ„¢ II, Seegene, Korea), multiplex PCR (Seeplex®, Seegene), and Mycoplasma IST 2 Kit (bioMerieux, France).
RESULTS
The prevalence of M. hominis, U. urealyticum, and U. parvum in the genitourinary samples of symptomatic patients compared with asymptomatic volunteers was 9.9% vs. 5.5%, 12.3% vs. 9.0%, and 36.4% vs. 30.8%, respectively. After eliminating cases of co-infections with other pathogens, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of M. hominis between symptomatic patients and asymptomatic volunteers (9.1% vs. 5.2%, P<0.05), but not in the prevalence of U. urealyticum and U. parvum organisms. When tested for antimicrobial susceptibility, more than 95.5% of each species were susceptible to tetracycline, doxycycline, josamycin, and pristamycin. More than 78.9% of Ureaplasma spp. were susceptible to azithromycin, erythromycin, and clarithromycin; however less than 4.2% of M. hominis were susceptible to these antibiotics. When tested with ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin, 40.9-58.9% and 9.1-25.0% of the three species were susceptible to these drugs, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
M. hominis is the leading causative pathogen for genitourinary infection; however the involvement of Ureaplasma spp. is debatable. For optimal antimicrobial therapy, the accurate detection of these organisms and determination of antimicrobial susceptibility is crucial considering their diverse antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.

Keyword

Mycoplasma hominis; Ureaplasma urealyticum; Ureaplasma parvum; Genitourinary; Prevalence; Antimicrobial susceptibility

MeSH Terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Azithromycin
Ciprofloxacin
Clarithromycin
Coinfection
Doxycycline
Erythromycin
Humans
Josamycin
Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
Mycoplasma hominis*
Mycoplasma*
Ofloxacin
Prevalence*
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Tetracycline
Ureaplasma urealyticum*
Ureaplasma*
Volunteers
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Azithromycin
Ciprofloxacin
Clarithromycin
Doxycycline
Erythromycin
Josamycin
Ofloxacin
Tetracycline

Reference

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