SUSCEPTIBILITY OF BACTERIA ISOLATED FROM LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS TO ANTIBIOTICS (1982)

Two hundred seventy-six bacterial strains were isolated as possible causative pathogens mainly from sputum in 248 patients with lower respiratory tract infections at 12 medical institutions in various parts of Japan during the period from September 1982 to March 1983. Of these, 272 isolates including 28Staphylococcus aureus strains, 38 Streptococcus pneumoniae strains, 107 Haemophilus influenzae strains, 68Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, 17Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, 9Escherichia coli strains and 5 strains of other species were testedin vitro for MICs of various antibiotics, and their drug sensitivity distributions determined. Data were also analyzed for distribution of cases by clinical entities, age and sex, interrelations between the types of infections and the species and frequency of isolation of organisms, and relations of the antimicrobial regimens at collection of clinical specimens to the species and frequency of isolation of the organisms. It engenders great interest that there was a significant increase in frequency ofS. aureus isolation within 7 days after antibiotic therapy, compared to pretreatment isolation frequency, in the 1982 series. This seems to deserve further investigation in detail. TheH. influenzae strains isolated with the highest frequency in 1981 and those in 1982 were examined as to susceptibility to several representative antibiotics, with interdrug comparisons: ABPC vs. SBPC, CTM vs. CMZ, and CMX vs. LMOX. The isolates demonstrated high degrees of susceptibility to these drugs and there was no conspicuous change in bacterial sensitivity to the drugs.