Abstract:
β-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins and cephalosporins are the most widely
used antibiotics. β-lactamases are the greatest source of resistance to penicillins
and cephalosporins. This study was carried out to detect penicillinase and
carbapenemase production among pathogenic bacteria during the period from
February to September 2018.
One hundred (100) specimens (80 urine specimens and 20 wounds wabs) were
collected from Elobied Teaching Hospital and Military Hospital. Socioeconomic
data such as age, gender and level of education and occupation were obtained
from each patient. Urine specimens were cultured on cystine lactose electrolyte
deficiency ( CLED) agar, while wound swabs were cultured on Blood agar and
Chocholate agar. Colonial morphology, Gram stain and biochemical test, were
used to identify the isolates. The susceptibility patterns of the isolated bacteria to
selected antibiotics was performed by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique.
Carbapenemase and penicillinas production was detected by modified Hodge
test (MHT).
The results revealed that 62(62%) of specimens showed bacterial growth, while
38(38%) showed no bacterial growth. Out of this 62, 51(82.2%) from urine
specimens and 11(17.8%) from wound specimens. Bacterial growth in females
were 48(77.4%) and14 (22.6%) were from males. the growth was high in age
group (20-40) which was 31(66.1%). Basic and non-educated patients showed
high bacterial growth 27(43.5%) and 21(35.4%) respectively. Patients that do
not used antibiotic in last three month were 56(90.4%) while 6 (9.6%) were
used. The isolated bacteria were Escherichia coli (E. coli) 16(25.8%),
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) 15(24.2%), Klebsilla spp 10(16.1%), Proteus
spp 5 (8%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps. aeruginosa) 4(6.5%), and
Enterobacter 1(1.6%) isolated from urine specimens, while from wound
specimens the isolate was Proteus spp11(17.8%).The sensitivity patterns of the
isolates to selected antibiotic was Imipenem (77%), Ciprofloxacin (76%),
Ceftazidime (37%), Nalidixicacid (33%), Tetracycline (58%), Co-trimexazol
(52%) in urine specimen while in wound specimens was Penicillin (0%),
Ceftazidime (0%), Erythromycin (18.2) and Amikacin (72.7). Out of 32, isolate
which show resistant to antibiotics 21 were resistant to penicillin and 12 were
resistant to Imipenem. Carbapenemase production was 3(9.4%) and
Penicillinase production was 22(68.7%) by modified Hodge test (MHT)
It is concluded that there is high prevalence of penicillinase production among
hospital patients. Further studies using large number of specimens and advanced
technique are recommended to validate the results of this study.
