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Levofloxacin: serum bactericidal activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates

Muller-Serieys C, Decré D, Benoit C, Bigot C, Maubert B, Carbon C

The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy, 1999

10 participants

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the serum bactericidal activity (SBA) of levofloxacin compared with that of ofloxacin against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates. Serum from 10 healthy volunteers (seven females, three males) was collected after a single oral dose of either levofloxacin (500 mg) or ofloxacin (400 mg). Subjects were allocated randomly to treatment after at least a 1 week interval between antibiotic regimens. Three well-defined MRSA strains were tested, each susceptible to levofloxacin and ofloxacin, with different levels of resistance to methicillin (HBD 456, HBD 3 and HBD 2; class 1, 2 and 3 Tomasz heterogeneous resistance, respectively) together with a methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) reference strain (S. aureus ATCC 25,923). SBA was tested in vitro by a microtitration method 15 min before dosing and at 1, 4, 8 and 12 h after drug absorption. Levofloxacin was significantly more bactericidal than ofloxacin against all strains of S. aureus tested (SBA > or = 1:2). An SBA was recorded for only a short period with ofloxacin, and thereafter only bacteriostatic activity remained. This study, therefore, confirms the superior activity of levofloxacin over that of ofloxacin against MSSA and MRSA.

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