[Comparison of linezolid and vancomycin in nosocomial pneumonia: results of the multicenter double-blind study]. / Linezolid pri nozokomial'nykh pnevmoniiakh: rezul'taty mnogotsentrovogo dvoinogo slepogo issledovaniia v sravnenii s vankomitsinom.

The results of multicenter, randomized, double-blind comparative study of linezolid and vancomycin efficacy, safety and tolerability in the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia are presented. The trial was performed on 69 patients. Clinical efficacy of linezolid was 83 per cent, of vancomycin--79 per cent. Bacteriological effect (pathogen eradication) was 83 per cent for linezolid group and 86 per cent for vancomycin group. During the study good clinical tolerability of linezolid was demonstrated along with lower side effects incidence and shortened recovery period when compared to vancomycin.

[Multicenter trial of Enterococcus antibiotic susceptibility]. / Resul'taty mnogotsentrovogo issledovaniia antibiotikochuvstvitel'nosti énterokokkov.

Antibiotic susceptibility of 446 Enterococcus isolates from 9 medical centres of Moscow and St. Petersburg was tested. Among the isolates 386 belonged to E.faecalis, 48 to E.faecium and 12 to the other species. All the isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. As for E.faecalis 84 and 85 per cent of the isolates were susceptible to ampicillin and ampicillin/sulbactam respectively (no production of beta-lactamases), the frequency of high resistance to aminoglycosides amounted to 44 per cent with respect to streptomycin and to 25 per cent with respect to gentamicin, 75 per cent of the isolates was susceptible to ciprofloxacin. As for E.faecium and the rare species of Enterococcus more than 70 per cent of the isolates was resistant to ampicillin and ampicillin/sulbactam, the frequency of high resistance to aminoglycosides exceeded 60 per cent, 17 and 25 per cent of the isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin.

[Multicenter study of Staphylococcus susceptibility to antibiotics in Moscow and St. Petersburg]. / Rezul'taty mnogotsentrovogo issledovaniia chuvstvitel'nosti stafilokokkov k antibiotikam v Moskve i Sankt-Peterburge.

Antibiotic susceptibility of 898 Staphylococcus strains isolated in 9 medical centres of Moscow and St. Petersburg was tested. The frequency of methicillin resistant staphylococci (MRS) ranged from 0 to 40 per cent for Staphylococcus aureus and from 0 to 65.9 per cent for coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS). The highest frequencies of MRS were in hematologic, oncologic and traumatologic units as well as in intensive care units for newborns. The frequencies of MRS in St. Petersburg were much lower than those in Moscow. Among the methicillin susceptible staphylococci the frequency of the isolates that produced beta-lactamases amounted to 81 per cent for S. aureus and to 60 per cent for CNS. Practically 100 per cent of the isolates was susceptible to ampicillin/sulbactam and cephalosporins of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations. 86-99 per cent of the isolates was susceptible to erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, gentamicin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxasole. All the MRS isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. 95, 84 and 70 per cent of the S.aureus strains were susceptible to fusidin, rifampicin and ciprofloxacin, respectively. The susceptibility of the CNS isolates was somewhat lower.

In vitro activity of ampicillin, cefoperazone, their combinations with sulbactam and other antimicrobials: survey of Russian isolates.

Methodological differences makes it difficult to compare results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing obtained in Russia and in other regions. During the period from October 1993 to May 1994 susceptibility of 1296 isolates of bacteria was investigated according to NCCLS standards by the broth microdilution method. The order of activity of antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria based on percent of susceptible strains from common hospitals were: amikacin (98%) > ciprofloxacin (93%) = imipenem (93%) > cefoperazone/sulbactam (92%) > ceftazidime (89%) > ceftriaxone (81%) > cefotaxime (80%) > cefoperazone (77%) > gentamicin (71%) > ampicillin/sulbactam (51%) > cefazoline (45%) > ampicillin (25%). The order of activity against strains from teaching hospitals was similar but the percent of susceptible strains was 10-20% less for the majority of antibiotics. The susceptibility level of Gram-negative isolates from Moscow teaching hospitals is lower than from Northern America and Europe. Ampicillln/sulbactam and cefoperazone/sulbactam, as well as other cephalosporins, demonstrated high activity against methicillin-susceptible staphylococci and penicillin-susceptible pneumococci. B-lactams/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations were active against 100% strains of anaerobic bacteria.

[Comparative in vitro activity ampicillin, cefoperazone, their combinations with sulbactam, as well as that of other antibiotics against aerobic gram-negative microorganisms]. / Sravnitel'naia aktivnost' in vitro ampitsillina, tsefoperazona, ikh kombinatsii s sul'baktamom, a takzhe drugikh antibiotikov v otnoshenii aérobnykh gramotritsatel'nykh mikroorganizmov.

The activity of 12 antibiotics against 849 strains of gram-negative aerobes isolated in special and general hospitals of Moscow and Smolensk in 1992-1993 was assayed with the method of serial microdilutions. By the criteria of the activity (percentage of the susceptible strains by the NSSLS criteria) against the isolates the antibiotics were arranged as follows: ciprofloxacin (89.8 per cent) > imipenem (89.6 per cent) > cefoperazone + sulbactam (86.1 per cent) > amikacin (83.8 per cent) > ceftazidime (81.8 per cent) > ceftriaxone (71.1 per cent) > cefoperazone (70.9 per cent) > cefotaxime (70.9 per cent) > gentamicin (60.8 per cent) > ampicillin + sulbactam (44.7 per cent) > cefazolin (37.5 per cent) > ampicillin (23.0 per cent). The frequency of the antibiotic susceptible isolates in the special hospitals was lower at the average by 20 per cent than that in the general hospitals with respect to all the antibiotics assayed.

[Aminoglycoside-inactivating enzymes in strains of Salmonella and genes encoding them]. / Aminoglikozidinaktiviruiushchie fermenty shtammov sal'monell i kodiruiushchie ikh geny.

Aminoglycoside resistance patterns of 56 strains isolated from man, cattle and environment were determined. 34 out of 42 gentamicin-resistant strains were shown to produce AAC(3)-II and 7 strains produced ANT(2"). All the 48 kanamycin resistant strains produced APH(3')-I. Spot hybridization of the 42 gentamicin resistant strains with the inner fragment of the aacC2 gene revealed positive signals for all the strains. Hybridization of the 48 kanamycin-resistant strains with the aphA1 gene probe provided positive results in all the strains. The AAC(3)-IV encoding gene was not detected by DNA-DNA hybridization in the strains studied.