Antimicrobial activity of prulifloxacin in comparison with other fluoroquinolones against community-acquired urinary and respiratory pathogens isolated in Greece

Prulifloxacin, the prodrug of ulifloxacin, is a broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone rather recently introduced in certain European countries. We compared the antimicrobial potency of ulifloxacin with that of other fluoroquinolones against common urinary and respiratory bacterial pathogens. The microbial isolates were prospectively collected between January 2007 and May 2008 from patients with community-acquired infections in Greece. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined for ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin (for respiratory isolates only), and ulifloxacin using the E-test method. The binary logarithms of the MICs [log 2 (MICs)] were compared by using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. A total of 409 isolates were studied. Ulifloxacin had the lowest geometric mean MIC for the 161 Escherichia coli , 59 Proteus mirabilis , and 22 Staphylococcus saprophyticus urinary isolates, the second lowest geometric mean MIC for the 38 Streptococcus pyogenes respiratory isolates (after moxifloxacin), and the third lowest geometric mean MIC for the 114 Haemophilus influenzae and the 15 Moraxella catarrhalis respiratory isolates (after ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin). Compared with levofloxacin, ulifloxacin had lower log 2 (MICs) against E. coli ( p