Antibiogram Assessment of Gram-negative Bacterial Isolates of LRTI Suspected Patients Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital

Lower respiratory tract infection is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A cross-sectional study was carried out with an objective to assess the antibiogram pattern of the Gram-negative bacterial isolates from LRTI suspected patients visiting tertiary care hospitals. The study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital laboratory from January 2022 to March 2022. A total of 108 sputum samples from LRTI suspected patients were processed for Gram-negative bacteria isolation. Out of 108 sputum samples, 17 (15.74%) showed significant growth for Gram- negative bacteria and 91 (84.26%) showed insignificant growth. Male suspected patients were more predominant over female suspected patients, showing (11)10% and (6)6% significant growth respectively. The most common bacterial pathogens among Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) suspected patients are Mycobacterium tuberculosis (47.05%) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17.64%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (17.64%), Escherichia coli (11.76%), and Klebsiella oxytoca (5.88%). Antibiotic susceptibility tests (AST) were done by the KirbyBauer disc diffusion method. The antibiotic susceptibility patterns of isolates revealed high resistivity against most of the used antibiotics whereas the isolates showed good in vitro activity against amikacin, ofloxacin and ceftriaxone. Therefore, Culture and Susceptibility tests are important for management of LRTI in patients.