John A. Washington

In Vitro Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Anaerobic Bacteria Isolated from Clinical Specimens

The minimal inhibitory concentrations of 601 clinical isolates of anaerobic bacteria to 10 different antimicrobial agents were determined by an agar-dilution technique. Nearly all strains were resistant to kanamycin and gentamicin, although moderate activity to both drugs was noted with Fusobacterium sp., anaerobic cocci, some strains of Bacteroides melaninogenicus, and nonsporeforming gram-positive bacilli. Chloramphenicol at 12.5 μg/ml inhibited all but three of the strains tested. Tetracycline at 6.25 μg/ml had high activity against all groups tested, with the exception that only 39% of strains of Bacteroides fragilis were inhibited at this concentration. Excluding certain species of Bacteroides, the majority of anaerobes were inhibited by penicillin at 3.1 μg/ml or less and by cephalothin at 12.5 μg/ml or less. Lincomycin at 6.2 μg/ml or less was active against nearly all strains. Erythromycin at a concentration of 3.1 μg/ml was active against B. fragilis; however, erythromycin was less active against the other groups. Most of the minimal inhibitory concentrations of lincomycin exceeded those of clindamycin by fourfold. Rifampin inhibited virtually all strains at 3.1 μg/ml.

Comparative In Vitro Activity of Three Aminoglycosidic Antibiotics: BB-K8, Kanamycin, and Gentamicin

Kanamycin, BB-K8, and gentamicin were tested in parallel against 1,037 bacterial strains isolated from clinical material. The activity of BB-K8 at 20 μg/ml was comparable to that of gentamicin at 8 μg/ml against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and against Enterobacteriaceae, with the exception of gentamicin-resistant strains of Proteus rettgeri and Providencia stuartii, in which case the activities of BB-K8 and kanamycin were the same. BB-K8 exhibited little or no activity against streptococci. The activity of BB-K8 was affected by pH and inoculum size. A regression graph for inhibition data with a 10-μg disk of BB-K8 was developed, and synergistic activity of penicillin and BB-K8 against Streptococcus faecalis was tested.

Musculoskeletal infections due to bacteroides.

The clinical characteristics of infections due to bacteroides with emphasis on musculoskeletal involvement were reviewed together with data on eleven patients with musculoskeletal infections due to bacteroides seen at the Mayo Clinic over an eighteen-year period. Six of these patients had osteomyelitis. All cases were characterized by a chronic course prior to bacteriological diagnosis. Follow-up indicated that the infection was arrested in ten of eleven patients after extensive debridement and antibiotic therapy.

Four-Hour Microbiological Assay of Gentamicin in Serum

Since the microbiological assay of the antibiotic content of serum generally requires 18 to 24 hr of incubation, results of such procedures may not become available in time to make appropriate adjustments in subsequent dosages of antibiotic. A 4-hr bioassay for determining concentrations of gentamicin in serum has been developed in which Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538P is used as the test organism. Poured plates have yielded satisfactory results after storage at 4 C for 5 days. Results of the 4-hr procedure agree closely with those of a conventional 18-hr disc-plate assay performed with the same test organism.

In vitro antibacterial activity of spectinomycin.

The in vitro inhibitory and bactericidal activities of spectinomycin hydrochloride were tested against a variety of bacteria. The antibiotic was inhibitory at 31.2 μg/ml to most strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Concentrations of antibiotic exhibiting bactericidal activity exceeded the inhibitory concentration by at least fourfold. Regression graphs were plotted for results obtained with 30-, 100-, 200-, and 300-μg spectinomycin discs; tentative interpretative standards are proposed.

Comparison of In Vitro Antibacterial Activities of Gentamicin and Verdamicin

The in vitro activities of verdamicin and gentamicin were studied in parallel against 1,049 bacterial isolates. Verdamicin demonstrated activity similar to that of gentamicin against members of the family Enterobacteriaceae and against Pseudomonas aeruginosa at 2 and 8 μg/ml, respectively. Proteus rettgeri and Providencia stuartii were notably more susceptible to verdamicin. The new aminoglycoside was also highly active against staphylococci but was not effective against group D streptococci.