title: Epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in human isolates of Enterobacteriaceae in Sicily.
abstract: The authors have studied the antimicrobial susceptibility of 1073 clinical isolates of various genera of Enterobacteriaceae (collected during the period July-December 1988) to ampicillin, piperacillin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, aztreonam, imipenem, gentamicin, amikacin, netilmicin, norfloxacin, and ciprofloxacin. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by Bauer-Kirby disk diffusion method. Of 1073 tested bacteria, 704 (65.6%) produced beta-lactamase detectable by nitrocefin test. The highest percentage of resistant strains occurred with ampicillin (70%) followed by piperacillin (24%) and cefotaxime (19%). Lower percentages of resistant strains were found for gentamicin (10%), aztreonam (8%), netilmicin (7%), norfloxacin (5%) and amikacin (4%). Two percent of the strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin and 0.5% to imipenem. The incidence of resistance in Klebsiella sp., Enterobacter sp., E. coli and Proteus sp. was compared to that found among 872 strains isolated during July-Dec. 1984. In all the Enterobacteriaceae, mainly Enterobacter sp., the increase in the resistance was high for ampicillin, piperacillin and cefotaxime and lower for gentamicin.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, University of Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blandino
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Caccamo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Marco
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Speciale
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nicoletti
mesh_terms: D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D001618:beta-Lactamases / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D001618:beta-Lactamases