Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum in pregnant women.

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are important opportunistic pathogens implicated in urogenital infections and complicated pregnancy. We aimed to study the role of these pathogens in symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women and determine their clinical significance and antibiotic susceptibility.

METHODS: One hundred pregnant women were included in the study, 50 symptomatic patients and 50 asymptomatic controls. Duplicate endocervical samples were taken from each individual and analyzed using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit and A7 agar medium. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested against doxycycline, josamycin, ofloxacin, erythromycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, and pristinamycin using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit.

RESULTS: Twelve symptomatic pregnant women had spontaneous abortions. Of these, eight (66.7%) cases had been colonized with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum. Of the pregnant women infected with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum, 40.7% delivered a low birth weight infant. M. hominis was successfully cultured in five women (5%) and U. urealyticum in 27 (27%). Among positive cultures, 15.6% and 84.4% of isolates were M. hominis and U. urealyticum, respectively. M. hominis and U. urealyticum were uniformly susceptible to doxycycline, tetracycline, and pristinamycin, which may be successfully used in the empirical therapy of infected individuals.

CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that genital colonization with M. hominis and U. urealyticum may predispose to spontaneous abortion and low birth weight.