BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1487721
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobial Resistance and Infection Control in Public Health Care SettingView all 13 articles
Causative organisms of urinary tract infections and their drug sensitivity: an analysis from various aspects
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Urology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
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Objective Urinary tract infection is a prevalent and complex clinical condition. To treat urinary tract infections more effectively, we sought to describe the distribution and antibiotic susceptibility of causative organisms in patients. Materials and methods We retrospectively analyzed 3685 patients with urinary tract infections between 2022 and 2023, treated at the Department of Urology of Wuhan Union Hospital. Clinical data, urine culture results, and drug sensitivity test data were collected for further analysis. Results Of all 3685 patients with positive urine cultures, 3899 strains of causative organisms were isolated. Gram-negative bacteria (2242/3899, 57.50%) were the most common causative organisms, among which Escherichia coli (1250/3899, 32.06%) was the most common species. Drug sensitivity tests showed that most pathogens exhibited high sensitivity to restricted antibiotics (e.g., carbapenems) and cephalosporins (nearly 100% and 90%, respectively), but high resistance rates to quinolones and macrolides (over 50%). Comparing the distribution of causative organisms and drug sensitivity between 2022 and 2023, we found that the proportion of Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis have increased significantly (p=0.0066 and p=0.0003, respectively), while the proportion of Enterococcus faecium have decreased significantly (p=0.0419). Compared to non-stone infections, stone-associated infections showed a significantly higher proportion of Proteus mirabilis (p<0.0001), consistent with its role in magnesium ammonium phosphate stones formation. Significant differences in pathogen distribution were also observed between outpatient and ward settings. Conclusion Based on the above results, cephalosporins are recommended to be applied in the initial empirical treatment, with timely adjustment according to the results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Keywords: Causative organism, Urinary tract infection, Drug Susceptibility, Drugresistance, antibiotics
Received: 28 Aug 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhang, Xiao, Zhang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wen Xiao, wxuro20@hust.edu.cn
Xiaoping Zhang, xzhang@hust.edu.cn
Lei Liu, liulei2016@hust.edu.cn
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