Diffusion of antibiotics into lung tissue. Critical analysis of the literature.

Objectives: Collect exhaustive data from the literature concerning the diff usion of antibiotics into lung tissue and calculate their inhibitory quotie nt towards the germs most frequently encountered in pulmonary infections. Data sources: Review of the literature. Data collected from the Medline dat abase with the key words : lung, diffusion, disposition, antibiotics. Inhib itory quotients calculated from these data. Results: The results were relatively similar for the different types of sam ples, though some differences existed between the studies. These difference s were caused In particular by methodological difficulties for the tissue d osage of antibiotics. Conclusion: Further standardized studies, measuring In particular the antib iotic concentration In the epithelial lining fluid and in the alveolar macr ophages, are necessary to obtain more reliable results in terms of inhibito ry quotients. Only clinical studies, perhaps with the help of these data, c ould establish the real efficiency of antibiotics in lung Infections. (C) 2 001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.