Mycoplasma hominis and ureaplasma urealyticum: Their role in urogenital system infections and retrospective evaluation of antibiotic resistance rates

Abstract

Objective: Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are opportunistic pathogens which can frequently be isolated from genitourinary tracts of humans. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence, epidemiologic features and antibiotic susceptibility of M. hominis and U. urealyticum agents in urine specimens which were sent from various clinics of Uludag University, Hospital of Health Application and Research Center for diagnosis of genitourinary system infection.Methods: Urinary specimen results of M. hominis and U. urealyticum were retrospectively reviewed between January 2015 and December 2016 in our hospital. Urinary specimens were examined using Mycoplasma IES (Autobio Diagnostics, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China) in 2015 and Biosynex (R) Mycoplasmatest (Biosynex, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France) in 2016 for the identification of M. hominis and U. urealyticum. Simultaneous urine culture and complete urinalysis results were compared with results of M. hominis and U. urealyticum.Results: In our study, we evaluated 5852 samples of 2926 patients comprising 67.43% females and 32.57% males for detection of M. hominis and U. urealyticum in urine. While U. urealyticum, and M. hominis were detected in 22.25% (651/2926) and 1.23% (36/2926) of the samples, respectively; coinfection was detected in 3.79% (111/2926). M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum positivity (n=798/2926) were found to be 32.12% in women and 11.02% in men. Resistance rates of M. hominis according to sex were found to be higher in women for ciprofloxacin and a statistically significant difference was found (chi(2)=4.336, p=0.037).Conclusions: As there was no growth in routine urine cultures of about half of the M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum-positive patients, it is recommended to consider the presence of urogenital M. hominis and U. urealyticum infections for treatment and to use laboratory tests for the diagnosis of these agents especially in the presence of risky conditions such as pregnancy.