[Antimicrobial resistance testing of H. pylori epsilometer test and disk diffusion test].

The resistance of Helicobacter pylori to antibiotics leaves great influence on treatment outcome. Routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing of H. pylori should be a simple, inexpensive and standardized method to be adopted. Agar and broth dilution techniques are difficult to perform and not practical. E-test and disk diffusion methods have the advantage of allowing the visualization of resistant subpopulations of bacteria within zones of inhibitions. We studied the susceptibility results of 246 H. pylori isolates against metronidazole and clarithromycin using E-test and disk diffusion test. The results of disk diffusion test were well correlated with these of E-test. Our results showed that disk method is cost effective and simple for the screening for antimicrobial resistance of H. pylori.