Distribution and drug resistance of pathogens causing lower respiratory tract infections in elderly patients

OBJECTIVE To explore the distribution and drug resistance of pathogens causing lower respiratory tract infections in the elderly patients of department of respiratory medicine so as to provide guidance for clinical use of antibiotics.METHODS The sputum specimens collected from the elderly patients with lower respiratory tract infections for bacterial culture,then the drug susceptibility testing was performed by using the K-B method,the results were interpreted by referring to the criteria of CLSI 2012,and the statistical analysis was performed with the use of SPSS15.0software.RESULTS A total of 960 strains of pathogens have been isolated,and most of the patients were with mixed infections;there were 685(71.4%)strains of gram-negative bacteria,among which the Klebsiella pneumoniae,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and Acinetobacter baumannii were dominant;there were 191(19.9%)strains of gram-positive bacteria,among which the Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus haemolyticus were the predominant species;there were 84(8.7%)strains of fungi,among which the Candida albicans was dominant.The pathogens showed certain drug resistance to the commonly used antibiotics;the drug resistance rates of the K.pneumoniaeto aztreonam and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim were 63.8%and 63.4%,respectively,and the drug resistance rate to imipenem was 0;the drug resistance rates of the S.aureus,S.haemolyticus,and Enterococci to teicoplanin and vancomycin were 0,and the drug resistance rates to penicillin were more than80.0%.CONCLUSIONIt is an effective way to strengthen the surveillance of drug resistance of the pathogens and reasonably use antibiotics according to the results of drug susceptibility testing so as to control the lower respiratory tract infections in the elderly patients in early stage.