Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (1999) 43, 833-835
© 1999 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Brief report |
Comparative in-vitro activity of moxifloxacin, penicillin, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin against pneumococci isolated from meningitis
Divisione di Clinica Medica III, Servizio Aggregato di Consulenze Internistico-Infettivologiche, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Rome ` La Sapienza' , Rome, Italy
Minimum inhibitory concentrations of penicillin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, and
moxifloxacin (BAY 12-8039), a new 8-methoxyquinolone, were determined for 60 cerebrospinal
fluid isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae collected during January 1997- April 1998
at
Italian medical centres. Three reference isolates with predetermined MIC values (two penicillin-
and multidrug-resistant isolates, one uniformly susceptible to all antibiotics) were also tested
with
the same antibiotics. The MIC90 of penicillin was 
0.03 mg/L (range 0.03- 2
mg/L), of ceftriaxone 0.06 mg/L (range 0.03- 0.5 mg/L), of ciprofloxacin 2 mg/L (range
0.5-
8 mg/L) and of moxifloxacin 0.06 mg/L (range 0.03- 0.12 mg/L). Moxifloxacin was effective
against all the penicillin-resistant isolates tested, with an MIC of 0.06 mg/L. Moxifloxacin was
32-fold more active than ciprofloxacin and was not affected by penicillin and cephalosporin
resistance. These results indicate that moxifloxacin could be useful for the treatment of both
penicillin-sensitive and -resistant S. pneumoniae meningitis
* Correspondence address. Servizio Aggregato di Consulenze Infettivologiche, Divisione di Clinica Medica III, Dipartmento di Medicina Clinica, Policlinico Umberto I, Viale dell'Universitá, 37, 00185, Rome, Italy. Tel and Fax: +39 06 494 0421.