Mycoplasma infections in the female genitourinary tract and drug susceptibilities of the Mycoplasmas

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to assess the prevelance of Mycoplasma infections in the female genitourinary tract and the drug susceptibility of the Mycoplasmas against antibacterial drugs. METHODS A Mycoplasma examination kit was used to culture Mycoplasmas in 122 genitourinary tract specimens and to assess the in vitro drug susceptibility of the Mycoplasmas against 10 antibiotics. RESULTS 512 of the 1126 examined cases were tested Mycoplasma-positive, resulting in an overall positive rate of 45.47%(512 / 1126). Among the 512 Mycoplasma-positive cases, 419 cases were Ureaplasma urealyticum-positive(81.48%), 15 cases were Mycoplasma hominis-positive(2.93%), and 78 cases were Ureaplasma urealyticum- and Mycoplasma hominis-positive(15.23%). Drug susceptibility results indicated that the Ureaplasma urealyticumpositive patients had the highest to lowest susceptibility against josamycin, clarithromycin, minocycline, and doxycycline and exhibited the highest to lowest resistance rate against spectinomycin, azithromycin, roxithromycin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin,and sparfloxacin. Drug resistance rate in patients with mixed infections of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis was significantly higher than that in patients infected with Ureaplasma urealyticum alone; drug resistance rate against spectinomycin, azithromycin, roxithromycin, ciprofloxacin, and ofloxacin in the doubly infected patients were higher than 70%.CONCLUSION Suspected cases of Mycoplasma infections should be examined by Mycoplasma culture and drug susceptibility test. Identification of the strains for Mycoplasma infections and drug susceptibility of the strains provide important guidelines for the treatment of Mycoplasma infections in the female genitourinary tract.