Comparison of three methods for the determination of the sensitivity of Helicobactor pylori to metronidazole

A comparison of various methods for the determination of the sensitivity of Helicobacter pylori to metronidazole was undertaken. The validity of the agar dilution, the disc diffusion and the Epsilometer (E) test was studied using a total of 86 strains, 16 of which were known to be resistant to metronidazole. All tests were carried out on Mueller-Hinton agar with 5% sheep blood. The results of the disc diffusion and the E-test were highly significantly (P