[Antimicrobial activities of arbekacin against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from patients of a pediatrics ward].

Aiming at measuring the antimicrobial activities of arbekacin (ABK) against the strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), isolated from pediatrics patients in 1992, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 8 antibiotics including ABK was determined and the coagulase types of those strains were also examined. The obtained results are summarized as follows. 1. Among coagulase types of a total of 78 strains, Type II, Type IV and Type VII were 84.6%, 12.8% and 2.6%, respectively. No clear difference in coagulase types were observed among their origins of isolation. 2. MIC90 of ABK against 42 strains isolated from the air passage of suspected pneumoniae patients and 36 strains isolated from the blood of suspected septicemia patients were 1.56 micrograms/ml and 3.13 micrograms/ml, respectively, and MIC90 of ABK against the 78 strains was 1.56 micrograms/ml, which was equal to that of vancomycin (VCM). 3. Most of these strains exhibited resistance against multiple antibiotic agents including cefmetazole (CMZ), imipenem (IPM), fosfomycin (FOM) and minocycline. Strains isolated from the blood were mostly resistant to multiple agents, and most of them were especially highly resistant to CMZ and IPM. ABK, however, showed potent antimicrobial activities even to those strains. These results were similar to the results obtained several years ago. 4. Considering the fact that ABK demonstrates not only potent antimicrobial activities against MRSAs isolated from the pediatric patients, but also shows remarkable clinical effects with concomitant use with beta-lactams or FOM, the prospect of ABK use in MRSA infectious diseases of children is excellent.