[In vitro comparative activity (E test) of sparfloxacin and other 8 antimicrobial agents against bacteria isolated from patients with respiratory infections acquired in the community].

Sparfloxacin is a new antimicrobial that, while maintaining a good activity against gram negative bacilli, has a better in vitro activity against gram positive bacteria such as S pneumoniae, intracellular pathogens and anaerobic bacteria. The aim of this work was to study the in vitro activity of sparfloxacin against bacteria isolated from patients with community acquired respiratory infections between October 1994 and January 1995. Using the E-test technique, we studied the susceptibility to sparfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, erythromycin, methicillin and nalidixic acid of 50 strains of S pneumoniae, 50 strains of H. influenzae, 50 strains of S aureus and 50 strains of S pyogenes. Sparfloxacin was active against 100% of S pneumoniae, H influenzae and S pyogenes strains. Twenty two percent of S aureus strains were resistant and the MIC 90 was 12 micrograms/ml. Sparfloxacin showed the best in vitro activity against H influenzae and S aureus, a similar activity with ampicillin and cefotaxime against S pneumoniae and a similar activity with ampicillin but superior to all other studied antimicrobial against S pyogenes. It is concluded that sparfloxacin is a good antimicrobial for bacteria isolated from patients with respiratory infections.