Background: The problem of antibiotic resistance has become worldwide health issue
among hospitalized patients in developing countries, where the inappropriate usage of
antibiotics is common. The widespread occurrence of multidrug resistant strains
(MDRS) of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is
currently considered avital medical challenge. The identification of ESβL genes and
their MDRS in widely isolated uropathogens may provide a helpful tool for choosing
effective antibiotic therapy and clinical improvement. Objective: The aim of this study is
to determine the prevalence of (bla.TEM, bla.CTX-M, and bla.SHV) β-lactamase DNAs
in E. coli and K. pneumoniae, and MDRS of uropathogens E. coli and k. pneumoniae
isolated from patients urine UTI diagnosed who were admitted to the Urology &
Nephrology Center. Methodology: Clinical E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates were
isolated from urine specimens of UTI diagnosed patients. Microbiological techniques
were utilised to identify the isolates. Antibiotics susceptibility analysis was done utilising
the Vitek2 system (bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France). The double disc diffusion
technique (DDDT) was used for detecting phenotypic ESBL in isolates. Using the
traditional PCR technique, the ESBL genes were identified. Results: Antibiotic
resistance of E. coli’s isolates to commonly used antibiotics was high (88.2% resistant to
Amoxicillin/clavulanate, 83.5 % were resistant to Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) while
minimum resistance appeared against Amikacin (AK) 10.5% and Imipenem (IP) 14%.
For isolates of K. pneumoniae, the resistance was higher for nitrofurantoin, ceftazidime,
cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin 96.6%, 83.3 %,83.3%, 80% respectively .In our study, out of
115 isolates, E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates, 81 (70.43%) were phenotypically
positive for ESβL by Combination Disc Test (CDT). The most commonly molecularly
detected ESBL genes were TEM 80% of K. pneumoniae isolates and 77.6% of E. coli
isolates .followed by SHV 70% of K. pneumoniae isolates and 34.1% of E. coli isolates
and finally, CTXM 67% of isolates of E. coli and 63.3% of isolates of K. pneumoniae.
Conclusions: The current study concluded that a high rate of resistance has been
developed in uropathogens with empiric antibiotic treatment. It emphasized the alarming
role of β-lactamases, especially ESßLs in antibiotic