1994 Volume 47 Issue 6 Pages 720-730
We investigated the clinical efficacy of arbekacin (ABK) in patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, and also studied coagulase types, β-lactamase producing activity and drug sensitivity of MRSA isolated from various clinical specimens. A total of23 patients with MRSA infections (13cases of pneumonia, 1case of sepsis, 1case of pneumonia and sepsis and8cases of the others) who were hospitalized from April1992to September1993were enrolled in this study. They were14males and9females, and the mean age was66.9years (range, 18-91years). All patients had underlying diseases (mainly malignant tumors and cerebrovascular diseases). ABK was given intravenously at doses ranging from75to100mg twice daily. The clinical efficacy rate was90%; 8cases showed excellent responces, 10cases good, 1case fair, 1case poor and3cases were unevaluable. The eradication rate of MRSA was81.8%; 16cases were judged as eradicated, 3cases decreased, 2cases replaced, 1case unchaged and in 1 case the bacteriological response was unknown. Side effects were not observed, but S-GPT was elevated in 1case. Coagulase types of MRSA (123 strains) isolated at the institutes involved in the study were type II (56 strains), type IV (12 strains), type VII (13 strains) and other types (2 strains), but coagulase types of40strains could not be determined. Eighty-four strains (68.3%) produced β-lactamases. MICs of ABK were0.5μg/ml against43strains and1μg/ml against37strains, and all of the MICs were under4μg/ml. In summary, ABK showed high antimicrobial activity against MRSA and clinical usefulness in the infections investigated.
