title: Decreased susceptibility of penicillin-resistant pneumococci to twenty-four beta-lactam antibiotics.
abstract: The in-vitro activity of 24 beta-lactam antibiotics was compared using three groups of pneumococci and an agar dilution method comprising 100 penicillin-susceptible, 100 intermediately penicillin-resistant, and 100 highly penicillin-resistant pneumococcal strains. Our results show that intermediately penicillin-resistant and highly penicillin-resistant pneumococci had decreased sensitivity to other beta-lactam agents. According to their relative in-vitro activity, the antimicrobials were classified into three groups. The first group included drugs more active than penicillin (imipenem, meropenem, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, and cefpirome), which could be useful for the treatment of infections due to penicillin-resistant strains. The second group showed slightly lesser activity than did penicillin, and included: ampicillin, cefdinir, cefuroxime, cefoperazone, azlocillin, mezlocillin, piperacillin, cephalothin, and cefamandole. The remaining antibiotics (oxacillin, cefixime, ceftizoxime, cefetamet, cefaclor, ceftazidime, cefoxitin, cefonicid, and latamoxef) showed poor activity against penicillin-resistant strains, precluding their use for empirical treatment in areas with a high prevalence of penicillin-resistant strains.
authors.affiliation: Service of Microbiology, Hospital de Bellvitge, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liñares
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ayats
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pallarés
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martín
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010403:Penicillin Resistance; D013045:Species Specificity; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects*; D047090:beta-Lactams
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D047090:beta-Lactams