Abstract:
Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes a wide variety of infections in immunocompromised hosts such as cancer chemotherapy patients. Antimicrobial resistance among clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa is of great concern in these immunocompromised patients who have been hospitalized for extended periods of time and have received broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy or cancer chemotherapy. Antibiotic resistance may complicate the treatment of infections and can adversely affect clinical outcomes and patient treatment costs. Surveillance of antimicrobial agents with activity against P. aeruginosa is thus very important. In the present study the in vitro activity of fluoroquinolones was compared with that of cephalosporins and aminoglycosides against 50 blood culture isolates of P. aeruginosa from hospitalized cancer patients. Susceptibility testing was performed by broth dilution method according to NCCLS guidelines. The overall respective MICs at which 50% and 90% of isolates inhibited (MIC50 and MIC90) were as follows: ciprofloxacin, 4 and 8 µg/mL; ofloxacin, 16 and 64 µg/mL; pefloxacin, 16 and 128 µg/mL; ceftazidime, 16 and 64 µg/mL; amikacin, 32 and 128 µg/m; and tobramycin, 4 and 64 µg/mL. For the quinolones, the order of activity against P. aeruginosa strains was ciprofloxacin > ofloxacin > pefloxacin, norfloxacin. Among cephalosporins 90% of isolates of P. aeruginosa were resistant against ceftazidime, whereas resistance to amikacin and tobramycin was 43% and 50%, respectively.
Page(s):
99-104
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Pakistan Journal of Zoology, Volume: 38, Issue: 2, Year: 2006