ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE OF STREPTOCOCCUS-PNEUMONIAE - COMPARISON OF THE IN-VITRO ACTIVITY OF 16 ANTIBIOTICS

A selected sample of 492 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae (175 susc eptible, 142 intermediately resistant, and 175 highly resistant to pen icillin) isolated from adult patients in Bellvitge Hospital, Barcelona , Spain, was tested for susceptibility to 16 antibiotics using a micro dilution broth method. Imipenen, rifampin, vancomycin, cefpirome, cefo taxime, and amoxicillin were the most active antibiotics against penic illin-resistant pneumococci. The strains with intermediate or high res istance to penicillin exhibited a significantly greater percentage of resistance (P less than or equal to 0.05) to erythromycin, clindamycin , tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and cotrimoxazole than penicillin-sus ceptible pneumococci, No resistance to third-generation cephalosporins was detected among penicillin-susceptible strains, whereas 1.4% of in termediately resistant strains and 13.2% of penicillin-resistant strai ns showed minimal inhibitory concentrations of cefotaxime greater than or equal to 2 mu g/mL.