FIG. 3.

Relationship between bactericidal ratio of vancomycin in CSF (peak concentration/MBC [0.5 μg/ml] for the pathogen) and rate of bacterial clearance in rabbits with experimental cephalosporin-resistant pneumococcal meningitis during the first 6 h of therapy. Datum points are derived from animals given vancomycin at doses of 20 mg/kg (● and ○) and 40 mg/kg (■ and □) with (open symbols) and without (closed symbols) a single dose of dexamethasone. The correlation was fit to a sigmoid E_max model as described in Materials and Methods (r² = 0.78). ★, controls.