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Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1986 Jun;23(6):1104–1108. doi: 10.1128/jcm.23.6.1104-1108.1986

Comparison of agar dilution, microdilution, and disk elution methods for measuring the synergy of cefotaxime and its metabolite against anaerobes.

J A Smith, D Henry, J Ngui-Yen, A Castell, S Coderre
PMCID: PMC268803  PMID: 2872231

Abstract

The activities of cefotaxime (CTX) and desacetyl cefotaxime (des-CTX) were tested both singly and in combination against 173 anaerobic clinical isolates. The MIC of CTX for 50% of 60 Bacteroides fragilis isolates was 22.4 micrograms/ml in broth, compared with 47.4 micrograms/ml in agar. This reduced efficacy in agar was seen with all species tested and is in apparent conflict with reported clinical efficacy of the drug. Synergy between CTX and des-CTX was observed with 70 to 100% of the isolates, including 60% of all Bacteroides spp. tested. The susceptibility results in a synergy system correlated well with those noted in a broth-disk elution method incorporating 32 micrograms of CTX and 8 micrograms of des-CTX per ml. The correlation was poorer when the broth-disk method contained 16 micrograms of CTX and 8 micrograms of des-CTX per ml.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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