fa تحقيقي Original Paper <div> <p><strong><u>ABSTRACT</u></strong></p> <p><u><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Background and Objective</strong>: One of the main tasks of clinical microbiology laboratories is to determine antibiotic resistance profiles in common pathogens and ensure the selection of effective antibiotics for certain infections.</u> <u>The aim of this study was to compare the methods of disk diffusion, broth microdilution and modified Hodge test in <em>Escherichia coli</em> isolates from urinary tract infection and diarrhea for susceptibility testing against beta-lactam antibiotics in Kerman, Iran.</u></p> <p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Methods: </strong>In this study, 432 <em>E. coli</em> isolates were collected from diarrhea (216 isolates) and urinary tract infection samples (216 isolates). The antibiotic susceptibility testing methods of disk diffusion, broth microdilution and modified Hodge test were performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines.</p> <p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Results</strong>: The findings of disk diffusion method showed that resistance to cefotaxime, ceftazidime, aztreonam, cefepime and imipenem was 51.15%, 30.55%, 24.30%, 15.27% and 1.85%, respectively. In the disk diffusion test, 51.15% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic, all of which were later evaluated by the broth microdilution method. Moreover, 52.94%, 17.19%, 13.12% and 0.90% of the isolates were resistant to cefotaxime, ceftazidime, cefepime and imipenem, respectively. All of the isolates were evaluated for the production of carbapenemase enzyme by the modified Hodge test and none of the isolates were found as positive.</p> <p><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Conclusion</strong>: This study shows that performing carbapenem tests is very challenging, and laboratories are recommended to use secondary and independent antibiotic susceptibility tests such as modified Hodge test to confirm the carbapenem-resistant results.</p> <p></p> </div> Escherichia coli, Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests, Beta-Lactams. 19 24 http://mlj.goums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-390&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Hesam Alizade yahoo.com 100319475328460010914 100319475328460010914 Yes Research Center for Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Fatemeh Fallah 100319475328460010915 100319475328460010915 No Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran Reza Ghanbarpour 100319475328460010916 100319475328460010916 No Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran Hosein Goudarzi 100319475328460010917 100319475328460010917 No Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran Hamid Sharifi 100319475328460010918 100319475328460010918 No Institute of Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Mohammad Reza Aflatoonian 100319475328460010919 100319475328460010919 No Research Center for Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran