Skip to main content
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy logoLink to Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
. 1977 Nov;12(5):591–596. doi: 10.1128/aac.12.5.591

Comparison of In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Three Oral Cephalosporins: Cefaclor, Cephalexin, and Cephradine

Michael S Silver *, George W Counts *, Dolores Zeleznik *, Marvin Turck *
PMCID: PMC429981  PMID: 921255

Abstract

Cefaclor, a new oral cephalosporin, was compared in vitro with cephalexin and cephradine against 233 organisms. Evaluations were performed in Mueller-Hinton and nutrient broth and agar using two inoculum sizes. In agar, cefaclor had greater antibacterial activity than either cephalexin or cephradine against isolates of Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Salmonella typhi. All three drugs were relatively inactive against isolates of enterococci, Enterobacter species, and indole-positive Proteus. Cefaclor, however, did exhibit the greatest activity of the three antibiotics against these organisms. Although there was wide variability with respect to test parameters, the broth results generally paralleled the agar results. In nutrient broth a clear separation of the results with these three cephalosporins was seen with K. pneumoniae, E. coli, and S. typhi. Cefaclor was the most active, cephalexin had intermediate activity, and cephradine was the least active. From the data obtained in this in vitro study, it can be concluded that cefaclor, which has a substituted chloro group attached to the molecule, had increased antibacterial activity over cephalexin and cephradine. Comparative clinical trials with cefaclor will determine whether the differences outlined above are of clinical significance.

Full text

PDF
594

Selected References

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

  1. Bill N. J., Washington J. A., 2nd Comparison of in vitro activity of cephalexin, cephradine, and cefaclor. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1977 Mar;11(3):470–474. doi: 10.1128/aac.11.3.470. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Reller L. B., Karney W. W., Beaty H. N., Holmes K. K., Turck M. Evaluation of cefazolin, a new cephalosporin antibiotic. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1973 Apr;3(4):488–497. doi: 10.1128/aac.3.4.488. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. TURCK M., ANDERSON K. N., SMITH R. H., WALLACE J. F., PETERSDORF R. G. LABORATORY AND CLINICAL EVALUATION OF A NEW ANTIBIOTIC--CEPHALOTHIN. Ann Intern Med. 1965 Aug;63:199–211. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-63-2-199. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES