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The primary predictor of successful Helicobacter pylori eradication is antibiotic resistance. To assess antibiotic resistance of H. pylori strains infecting U.S. veterans, investigators at a single large Veterans Affairs hospital performed a cross-sectional study of a random sample of 656 patients (90% men) from a cohort of 1559 patients who had gastric biopsies obtained between 2009 and 2013. H. pylori was detected in culture and antibiotic resistance was determined for each specimen.
H. pylori infection was found in 135 patients (20.6%). Only 65 (48.2%) of the organisms were susceptible to all five antibiotics tested. Resistance prevalence was 31.3% to levofloxacin, 20.3% to metronidazole, 16.4% to clarithromycin, and 0.8% to tetracycline.…