In Vitro Evaluation of Sparfloxacin Activity and Spectrum Against 24,940 Pathogens Isolated in the United States and Canada, the Final Analysis

Sparfloxacin, a recently marketed oral fluoroquinolone, was tested against 24,940 recent clinical strains isolated from blood stream and respiratory tract cultures at 187 hospitals in the USA and Canada. Sparfloxacin activity was compared with 5 to 13 antimicrobial agents using either Etest (AB BIODISK, Solna, Sweden) and a reference broth microdilution or a standardized disk diffusion method. When applying recommended MIC breakpoint criteria of sparfloxacin susceptibility (≤0.5 μg/mL) for Streptococcus pneumoniae (4,410 strains) and other Streptococcus spp. (554 isolates), 93% and 88% were inhibited, respectively. Furthermore, at ≤1 μg/mL sparfloxacin susceptibility rates for streptococci increased to 98% overall and 99.3% for S. pneumoniae. In contrast, only 46% and 68% of pneumococci were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (MIC 90, 3 μg/mL; susceptible at ≤1 μg/mL) and penicillin (MIC 90, 1.5 μg/mL; susceptible at ≤0.06 μg/mL), respectively. Differences between regions in the USA for rates of penicillin-resistant pneumococcal strains were observed (greatest resistances in southeast and midwest), but results indicate that the sparfloxacin potency was not adversely influenced (MIC 90, 0.5 μg/mL). Also pneumococcal isolates from the lower respiratory tract were more resistant to penicillin and other β-lactams. Nearly all Haemophilus species and Moraxella catarrhalis strains, including those harboring β-lactamases, were susceptible to tested fluoroquinolones (sparfloxacin, ciprofloxacin), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and newer oral cephalosporins. Sparfloxacin was very active against oxacillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 90, 0.12 μg/mL; 96–97% susceptible), Klebsiella spp. (MIC 90 0.12 μg/mL), and other tested enteric bacilli (92–95% susceptible). Comparisons between the broth microdilution MIC and disk diffusion interpretive results demonstrated excellent intermethod susceptibility category agreement (>95%) using current sparfloxacin breakpoints, but some compounds (cefpodoxime disk diffusion tests for S. aureus) may require modifications. These results demonstrate that new Gram-positive focused fluoroquinolones (sparfloxacin) possess an excellent in vitro activity and spectrum against pathogens that cause respiratory tract infections. This spectrum of activity includes strains resistant to other antimicrobial classes, including the oral cephalosporins, macrolides, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, and earlier fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin). O