Abstract

Urinary tract infections and diabetes are two of the most important infectious and metabolic diseases all-around the world. Documented data showed that diabetes is one of the most important causative reasons of getting UTIs. Virulent and resistant strains of Escherichia coli are the most important causative agents for UTIs. The present investigation was carried to in order to evaluate the distribution of uropathogenic E. coli as well as virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance pattern of bacterial isolates of diabetic and non-diabetic patients suffered from UTIs. A total of 300 urine samples were collected from diabetic and non-diabetic patients suffered from UTIs. Samples were cultured and those that were positive were subjected to PCR and disk diffusion method. Prevalence of UPEC strains in diabetic and healthy patients were 65.38 and 36.47, respectively. Significant difference was seen for the prevalence of UPEC strains between diabetic and healthy male patients (P <0.01). Older patients had the higher prevalence of E. coli (P <0.01). Fim, cnf1, papGIII and hlyA were the most commonly detected virulence factors. UPEC strains showed the highest levels of resistance against ampicillin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. UPEC strains of diabetic patients were more virulent and resistant (P <0.05). Prescription of ceftriaxone, aztreonam, nalidixic acid and imipenem can reduce the risk of UTIs in diabetic patients.