Comparative studies on activities of antimicrobial agents against causative organisms isolated from patients with urinary tract infections (2002). I. Susceptibility distribution

: The bacterial strains isolated from 491 patients diagnosed as having urinary tract infections (UTIs) in 13 institutions in Japan were supplied between August 2002 and July 2003. The susceptibilities of them to many kinds of antimicrobial agents were investigated. Of them, 578 strains were estimated as causative bacteria and used for the investigation. The number of them was 578 strains consisting of 177 gram-positive bacterial strains (30.6%) and 401 gram-negative bacterial strains (69.4%). Against Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin (VCM) showed a strong activity and prevented the growth of all strains with 1 microg/mL. The susceptibility of Staphylococcus epidermidis to cephems including cefotiam (CTM) was relatively good. Against Enterococcus faecalis, ampicillin (ABPC), imipenem (IPM), and VCM showed the strongest antibacterial activity (MIC90: 2-4 microg/mL). In addition, the low sensitive strains (MIC: > or = 256 microg/mL) to clarithromycin (CAM) were detected at 48.3% but none to cefozopran (CZOP). The antibacterial activity of cephems to Escherichia coli was generally good, and especially CZOP and cefpirome (CPR) showed the highest activity (MIC90: or = 256 microg/mL except IPM and amikacin (AMK) having 16 microg/mL. The antibacterial activity of CZOP was relatively good (MIC50: 8 microg/mL).