BACKGROUND For weaning patients from prolonged mechanical ventilation, we previously designed a respiratory-therapist-implemented weaning protocol that decreased median weaning time from 29 days to 17 days. An acceleration step at the start of the protocol allowed patients with a rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI) of < or = 80 to advance directly to spontaneous breathing trials (SBTs). METH...

the infections risk related to pathogenic germs increases at the present time considering the increased resistance which certain microbes acquire, whose usual antibiotics are ineffective to treat the infectious disease. the aim of this study was to determine antimicrobial effect of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of lavandula stoechas l. and rosmarinus officinalis l. on listeria monocytogene...

Quinupristin-dalfopristin (Q-D) and eight other antimicrobial agents were tested alone and in combination with Q-D in time-kill studies against 10 strains of macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Although Q-D is normally a bactericidal drug, it was only bacteriostatic for these isolates. Gentamicin alone was bactericidal against 7 of the 10 strains, and Q-D did ...

The bactericidal effect of visible light illumination on bacteria treated with non-toxic photosensitizers (PS) has been shown previously, its effectiveness depended on both cell type and nature of photosensitizer used. The photosensitizer (PS)-mediated bactericidal effect of light against different types of microorganisms including vegetative bacteria (both in planktonic form and in biofilms), ...

Time-kill studies compared the activities of grepafloxacin with those of ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, sparfloxacin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, and clarithromycin against 12 pneumococcal strains. Grepafloxacin was bactericidal after 24 h against all strains at a concentration of < or = 0.5 microg/ml, while sparfloxacin, levofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin were bactericidal at concentrations of < or = ...

The ability of Klebsiella pneumoniae strains to resist the bactericidal activity of serum was quantitated. The K. pneumoniae strains tested included mutants lacking the capsular polysaccharide and mutants having a modified lipopolysaccharide structure. The last mutants were obtained as phage-resistant mutants, and their lipopolysaccharide was characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylami...

Introduction of silver into some inorganic material causes the resulting mixture to have antibacterial activity. Here, we investigated the role of silver in the bactericidal activity of silver-loaded zeolite, by measuring the effects of silverloaded zeolite on Escherichia coli cell viability under conditions in which the oxidation state of the silver was controlled electrochemically. Bactericid...

Trovafloxacin was found to be a typical quinolone producing a biphasic dose response against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pneumoniae. A reduced rate of kill was seen against Enterococcus faecalis, which is also typical of the quinolones. However, the bactericidal activity of trovafloxacin against S. aureus and S. pneumoniae was greater than most other quinolones prev...

The bactericidal power of fresh human plasma against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli was extremely sensitive to changes in Eh and pH. At a high Eh (approx. +200 mV) the bacteria were destroyed, but rapid regrowth occurred when the Eh was lowered to approx. -400 mV. Abolition of the bactericidal effect was also produced by adding ferric iron at a high Eh (approx. +200 mV). Lowering th...

The ability of cecropin A to permeabilize and depolarize the membranes of Escherichia coli ML-35p bacteria has been compared to its bactericidal activity in an extension of earlier studies performed on synthetic lipid vesicle membranes (L. Silvestro, K. Gupta, J. H. Weiser, and P. H. Axelsen, Biochemistry 36:11452-11460, 1997). Our results indicate that differences in the concentration dependen...