This article will review the most recent literature (April 2009–March 2010) in an attempt to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the current therapies and the factors which explain declining eradication rates. Resistance, particularly to clarithromycin, is thought to be the single most important factor in treatment failures [6]. It has been
illustrated that clarithromycin resistance can reduce eradication rates by up to 70% [7]. Resistance rates are highly variable over the world and as such this makes it impossible to decree any one eradication regimen as being suitable on a global basis. In Europe, numerous recent studies have illustrated an increase in rates of clarithromycin resistance when compared to the European Multicentre study carried out in 1997.
Northern European rates of clarithromycin resistance have traditionally been low but appear to be rising. Selleck Tanespimycin In Ireland, clarithromycin resistance among the treatment naïve population increased from 3.9% in 1997 to 9.3% last year [8]. Similar findings have been reported in other European countries in the last few years. A French group found that clarithromycin resistance was 19.2% in treatment naïve population, and 26% overall, which click here calls into question the continued justification for using triple therapy [9]. In Taiwan, a clarithromycin resistance rate of 10.6% has recently been reported [10]. An interesting study from an Italian group also revealed
an increase in resistance but suggested that markedly significantly lower rates of resistance are obtained, when Smoothened phenotypic resistance (as measured by Etest) is compared with genotypic resistance (as measured by PCR): 18.4% versus 37.6%, respectively [11]. The PCR method is able to detect a small proportion of the H. pylori population harboring genotypic resistance that does not emerge phenotypically [12,13]. This may mean that resistance could well be more prevalent than hitherto thought, as the other mentioned studies used only Etest. More clinically, oriented studies are needed to supplement this knowledge. Resistance to metronidazole is thought to be of secondary importance compared to clarithromycin resistance in terms of eradication treatment [14]. In addition to this, reproducibility between testing methods has been poor historically. Most of the published data have suggested that metronidazole resistance is static in most communities at between 30 and 40% [8,10,15,16]. Amoxicillin resistance is exceptional with some studies having a rate of zero [10]. Fluoroquinolone resistance is an emerging factor. Levofloxacin is the most commonly used fluoroquinolone in H. pylori eradication, and resistance to this drug is also on the increase.