RESEARCH Open Access

Background: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are more susceptible to urinary tract infection (UTI) than non-diabetics. Due to the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) uropathogenic strains, the choice of antimicrobial agent is restricted. This study investigated the epidemiology of UTI, antimicrobial susceptibility, and resistance patterns of bacterial isolates from adult diabetic patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Khartoum Hospital, Sudan during the period of March − September 2013. Consecutive patients (men and women) were approached to participate in the study, irrespective of UTI symptoms. Socio-demographic and clinical data were obtained from each participant using pre-tested questionnaires. Clean-catch, midstream urine samples were collected and cultured for UTI diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility. Symptomatic bacteriuria was defined as a positive urine culture (≥105 colony-forming units [CFU]/mL of a single bacterial species) from patients with symptoms associated with UTI; asymptomatic bacteriuria was defined as a positive urine culture from patients without symptoms associated with UTI. Results: A total of 200 diabetic patients were enrolled, 121 (60.5%) men and 79 (39.5%) women; 193 (96.5%) had type II DM. The overall prevalence of UTI was 39 (19.5%). Among the total population, 17.1 % and 20.9 % had symptomatic and asymptomatic bacteriuria, respectively. According to multivariate logistic regression, none of the investigated factors (age