Activity of amoxicillin, metronidazole, bismuth salicylate and six aminoglycosides against Helicobacter pylori.

The in vitro activity of metronidazole, amoxicillin, bismuth salicylate and some aminoglycosides, such as ribostamycin, gentamicin, amikacin, tobramycin, streptomycin and netilmicin was evaluated against 60 clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori using the agar dilution technique. All 60 strains were susceptible to amoxicillin, with minimum concentrations able to inhibit 50% (MIC 50) and 90% (MIC 90) of strains equal to 0.031 microgram/ml and 0.25 microgram/ml, respectively. Of the aminoglycosides, ribostamycin, streptomycin and amikacin had a little lower activity (MIC 50 of 2 micrograms/ml, MIC 90 of 4-8 micrograms/ml) than gentamicin, tobramycin and netilmicin, with MIC 50s of 0.125 microgram/ml and MIC 90s of 0.25 microgram/ml. Metronidazole was effective against the majority of the strains, but we found ten resistant strains. Finally, bismuth salicylate showed only slight antibacterial activity.