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Three hundred seventy-five Gram-negative bacterial strains were isolated from urine specimens of as many patients affected by symptomatic or asymptomatic urinary tract infections. Susceptibility of bacteria to five chemotherapeutics (norfloxacin, oxolinic acid, pipemidic acid, nalidixic acid and nitrofurantoin) was studied determining minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of each compound by a miniaturized dilution broth method. Norfloxacin, a quinoline carboxylic acid compound structurally related to nalidixic acid, showed a much higher antibacterial activity against all bacterial strains under examination including Pseudomonas sp. The best activity of norfloxacin was expressed either by lower MICs and lower MBCs with respect to those of the other compounds, or by a low MBC/MIC ratio, which represents an important advantage in clinical practice.

A total of 127 Gram-negative bacteria resistant to nalidixic acid were isolated from as many patients affected by urinary tract infections and hospitalized in the first Clinic of Infectious Diseases, University of Naples. Enterobacteria were identified by Enterotube system (Roche) and API 20 system (Ayerst). Non-fermentative bacteria were identified by OXI/FERM system (Roche). The following bacteria were collected: Escherichia coli 50, Proteus spp. 35, Enterobacter agglomerans 12, Serratia sp. 5, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 25. The in vitro antibacterial activity of nalidixic acid and three other quinoline derivatives (pipemidic acid, oxolinic acid and ciprofloxacin) were studied by determining the MICs by a miniaturized dilution broth method. The MICs were compared to evaluate the eventual cross resistance to the drugs under examination within each bacterial species. The results showed that 23% of bacteria were resistant to nalidixic acid, pipemidic acid and oxolinic acid; 49.6% to nalidixic and pipemidic acid and 0.7% to nalidixic acid and oxolinic acid. On the other hand none of the bacteria were resistant to ciprofloxacin. The last showed very low MICs against all the bacteria under examination, including Pseudomonas and Serratia. The high antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin even against bacteria highly resistant to the other quinolines could be due to a greater affinity of the target sites or to the better permeability of resistant strains to the newer drug or because it is unaffected until now by mutations of genes responsible for cross resistance.

The in vitro activity of ceftazidime compared with other beta-lactamase stable compounds was assessed against recent Gram-negative isolates. Three hundred forty-three bacterial strains were isolated from patients affected with UTI, identified by standard bacteriological methods and investigated for their production of beta-lactamases by the Nitrocefin test. MICs and MBCs (minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal concentration) of ceftazidime, cefamandole, cefoxitin, cefotaxime and cefuroxime were determined by a miniaturized dilution broth method against all beta-lactamase producing bacteria (129 out of 343). Sensitivity of the antibiotics to beta-lactamases isolated and semipurified by ultrasonic disruption and high-speed centrifugation was assessed by a spectrophotometric method. The in vitro antibacterial activity of each antibiotic was correlated to its sensitivity to isolated beta-lactamases. Ceftazidime showed lower MIC and MBC values and lower MBC/MIC ratios than the other compounds against all the bacteria including Pseudomonas spp. In addition, ceftazidime was not hydrolyzed significantly by any isolated beta-lactamases.