The epidemiology of mupirocin resistance among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at a Veterans' Affairs hospital.

Objective: To describe the clinical and molecular epidemiology of mupirocin-resistant (MR) and mupirocin-susceptible (MS) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at a Veterans' Affairs hospital and to assess risk factors associated with the acquisition of MR MRSA.

Design: All clinical MRSA isolates for the period October 1990 through March 1995 underwent susceptibility testing to mupirocin. Mupirocin resistance trends were measured, and MS MRSA and MR MRSA isolates underwent typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

Comparative activity of meropenem (SM-7338) against major respiratory pathogens and amikacin-resistant nosocomial isolates.

Meropenem, a new broad-spectrum carbapenem antibiotic, demonstrated excellent in vitro activity against major respiratory pathogens including Moraxella catarrhalis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Minimal inhibitory concentrations of meropenem for Moraxella catarrhalis and Haemophilus influenzae isolates were frequently less than those of imipenem. For nosocomial amikacin-resistant gram-negative bacilli, meropenem had eightfold lower MIC90 values compared to imipenem against strains of Serratia marcescens, Enterobacter cloacae and Escherichia coli; it was 32-fold more active than imipenem against Proteus mirabilis isolates.

Pulmonary clearance and phagocytic cell response in a murine model of Branhamella catarrhalis infection.

C5-sufficient Swiss-Webster mice (C5+) and C5-deficient DBA/2J mice (C5-) when challenged endotracheally with 2 x 10(7) cfu of Branhamella catarrhalis rapidly clear the lungs of viable bacteria in 48 h. This rapid clearance correlates with a striking influx of polymorphonuclear neutrophils that is of equal magnitude in both C5+ and C5- animals. Supernatant from Todd-Hewitt broth culture of B.

Susceptibility of dysgonic fermenter 2 to antimicrobial agents in vitro.

Dysgonic fermenter 2 (DF-2) is a fastidious, gram-negative organism well recognized as a cause of fulminant septicemia in patients without spleens or patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. In vitro antibiotic susceptibility testing of eight strains with a Schaedler broth dilution technique revealed DF-2 to be susceptible to all of the antibiotics tested except aztreonam. Previous reports that DF-2 is aminoglycoside resistant were based on disk diffusion or agar dilution assays that may be less reliable given the slow growth of the organism and its requirement for CO2 incubation.