Detiction and drug resistance to commonly used antibiotics of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis in chronic cervicitis patients

OBJECTIVE To explore the prevalence of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis among the patients with chronic cervicitis (CC) and observe their drug resistance to commonly used antibiotics.

METHODS A total of 91 patients with CC who were treated in gynecology department of Women and Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Ningbo University from Jan. 2022 to Jun. 2024 were assigned as the CC group, meanwhile, 91 healthy women who received physical examination were chosen as the control group. The genital tract secretions were collected from all of the research subjects for the culture of U. urealyticum and M.hominis and drug susceptibility testing. The isolation rates of U. urealyticum, M. hominis and U. urealyticum plus M. hominis were compared between the two groups. The isolation rates of U. urealyticum and M.hominis were compared among the different age groups of CC patients. The drug susceptibility testing of U. urealyticum and M.hominis for doxycycline (DOX), josamycin (JOS), ofloxacin (OFL), clarithromycin (CLA), erythromycin (ERY), tetracycline (TET), azithromycin (AZI) and pristinamycin (PTN) were observed.

RESULTS Totally 75 (82.41%) genital tract secretion samples tested positive for Mycoplasma among the 91 samples, 37 detected with U. urealyticum, 25 were M. hominis, and 13 were U. urealyticum plus M. hominis. The isolation rates of U. urealyticum, M. hominis and U. urealyticum plus M. hominis of the CC group were 40.66%, 24.47% and 14.29%, respectively, higher than 8.79%, 4.40% and 5.49% of the control group (P < 0.05). The total detection rate of U. urealyticum, M. hominis and U. urealyticum plus M. hominis was higher among the CC patients aged between 20 and 40 years old than among the CC patients aged more than 40 years old (P < 0.05). The U. urealyticum strains from the positive specimens of the CC patients were highly sensitive to CLA and DOS but were resistant to OFL, CIP and PTN; the M. hominis and U. urealyticum plus M. hominis strains were sensitive to JOS and DOX but were resistant to OFL and CIP.

CONCLUSIONS The detection rates of U. urealyticum plus M. hominis are higher among the CC patients than among the normal population. The isolated U. urealyticum and M. hominis strains are highly resistant to quinolones and aminoglycosides. It is necessary for the hospital to empirically choose sensitive antibiotics based on the result of drug susceptibility testing.