Antibacterial Activity of Cefditoren Against Major Community-Acquired Respiratory Pathogens Recently Isolated in Italy

Abstract

In this study we evaluated the in vitro activities of cefditoren - a broad-spectrum oral cephalosporin - and other comparator agents against 2,396 fresh isolates from community-acquired respiratory tract infections, collected from 6 clinical Italian microbiology laboratories.

On penicillin-susceptible pneumococci and Streptococcus pyogenes, cefditoren demonstrated to be the most active antibiotic (MIC₉₀ values of 0.03 and 0.06 mg/L respectively), showing only a slight decrease in potency on penicillin-intermediate and re-sistant pneumococci (MIC₉₀ value 0.5 mg/L, 1.0 mg/L respectively). All the other comparators displayed MIC₉₀ values of 4 - 8 mg/L for penicillins and of 4 to >64 mg/L for the oral cephalosporins. Cefditoren and levofloxacin were the most active against MSSA (MIC₉₀ 0.5 mg/mL). Cefditoren displayed a uniformly potent inhibitory activity (MIC₉₀ of 0.03 mg/L) against all strains of Haemophilus influenzae, regardless of their ampicillin resistance (mediated or not by beta-lactamase production), while against Moraxella catarrhalis MIC₉₀ values were higher against beta-lactamase-positive (0.25 mg/L). Cefditoren was active also against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli: in this case its activity was comparable with that of levofloxacin.

In conclusion, cefditoren, due to its potent activity, is a new effective therapeutic option for the treatment of respiratory tract infections.

Keywords:

• Cefditoren
• antimicrobials
• CARTI
• Gram-positive
• Gram-positive
• Gram-negative
• MIC