We describe a calorimetric assay for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within 5 h. Microbial heat was calculated in culture with and without cefoxitin. Among 30 genetically distinct clinical isolates, 19/20 MRSA (95%) and 10/10 methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (100%) were correctly identified. Microcalorimetry may be useful for rapid MRSA screening.

DHA-1, a plasmid-mediated cephalosporinase from a single clinical Salmonella enteritidis isolate, conferred resistance to oxyimino-cephalosporins (cefotaxime and ceftazidime) and cephamycins (cefoxitin and moxalactam), and this resistance was transferable to Escherichia coli HB101. An antagonism was observed between cefoxitin and aztreonam by the diffusion method. Transformation of the transcon...

The minimal inhibitory concentrations of 30 antibiotics were determined by the agar dilution method for 17 penicillinase-positive and 50 penicillinase-negative strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The latter included 42 strains that were penicillin susceptible (pen S) (minimal inhibitory concentration, <0.125 mug/ml) and 8 strains with intermediate resistance to penicillin (pen I; minimal inhibito...

RATIONALE The optimal therapeutic regimen and duration of treatment for Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease is not well established. OBJECTIVES To assess the efficacy of a standardized combination antibiotic therapy for the treatment of M. abscessus lung disease. METHODS Sixty-five patients (11 males, 55 females, median age 55 yr) with M. abscessus lung disease were treated with clarithrom...

Antibiotic resistance continues to contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality across the world. Developing new tests for antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a core action to combat resistant infections. We describe a method that uses phage amplification detection (PAD) combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) to rapidly identify Staphylococcus...

A retrospective analysis of susceptibility data on 542 blood isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group tested from 1987 to 1999 by the same NCCLS-recommended broth microdilution method throughout is presented. Metronidazole, beta-lactam-beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations, carbapenems, and trovafloxacin were the most active agents (susceptibility of >or=93%). Among the cephalosporin-cephamyc...

We used fluorescein-tagged beta-lactam antibiotics to visualize penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) in sporulating cultures of Streptomyces griseus. Six PBPs were identified in membranes prepared from growing and sporulating cultures. The binding activity of an 85-kDa PBP increased fourfold by 10 to 12 h of sporulation, at which time the sporulation septa were formed. Cefoxitin inhibited the int...

The in vitro activity of HR756, a new semisynthetic cephalosporin, was compared with the activities of cephalothin, cefoxitin, and cefamandole against 1,535 isolates of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. HR756 was less active than cephalothin and cefamandole and twofold more active than cefoxitin against Staphylococcus. All four of the antibiotics were inactive against the enterococcus g...

The class A carbapenemase KPC-6 produces resistance to a broad range of β-lactam antibiotics. This enzyme hydrolyzes penicillins, the monobactam aztreonam, and carbapenems with similar catalytic efficiencies, ranging from 10(5) to 10(6) M(-1) s(-1). The catalytic efficiencies of KPC-6 against cephems vary to a greater extent, ranging from 10(3) M(-1) s(-1) for the cephamycin cefoxitin and the e...