BACKGROUND We examined how prolonged antibiotic treatment affected the resistance and mutation frequency of human microflora isolated from intestine (Escherichia coli, enterococci spp.), pharynx (alpha-streptococci) and nostril (coagulase-negative staphylococci, CoNS). METHODS Samples were collected from patients at the Center of Cystic Fibrosis (n=18) and the haematology ward (n=18) of the U...

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is one of the most significant causes of mortality and morbidity. Early diagnose is important especially in multiple drug resistant tuberculosis to avoid transmission. Traditional techniques requires at least one to three weeks for diagnosis of tuberculosis. Diagnostic delays with multiple drug resistant tuberculosis are associated with worse clinical...

BACKGROUND Various studies have reported that the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis poses a significant threat to tuberculosis-control programs worldwide. Rifampicin resistance is a surrogate marker of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, since it reveals the presence of greater than 90% isoniazid resistance. Evidence on rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is scarce in the liter...

OBJECTIVES The reference standard methods for drug susceptibility testing (DST) of M. tuberculosis are very slow to give results, and due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, there is an urgent demand for new, rapid and accurate DST methods, particularly in low-income countries. The nitrate reductase assay (NRA) has been prop...

Background Drug-resistant tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is difficult to diagnose and treat. Mortality is high and optimal treatment is unknown. We compared clinical outcomes of drug-resistant and -susceptible TBM treated with either standard or intensified antituberculosis treatment. Methods We analyzed the influence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance on the outcomes of patients wit...

OBJECTIVES The genetic basis of rifampicin resistance and the associated fitness cost in Enterococcus faecium were investigated. METHODS Twelve spontaneous rifampicin-resistant E. faecium mutants were selected from four parent strains recently isolated from porcine faecal material. The DNA sequence of the complete rpoB gene from the parent strains and of nucleotides -189 to +1785 from the mut...

Selection and regrowth of variants resistant to 0.016-32 mg/L of rifampicin, which were present at a frequency of 10(-7) in the initial inoculum, were seen when large inocula (> 10(5) cfu/mL) of Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 35984 were incubated with the drug. Conventional MIC determinations using approximately 10(5) cfu/mL did not detect the resistant variants. Larger inocula increased the M...

Medical device-associated infections caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis usually involve biofilm formation and its eradication is particularly challenging. Although rifampicin has been proving to be one of the most effective antibiotics against S. epidermidis biofilms, its use as a single agent can lead to the acquisition of resistance. Therefore, we assessed the combined effect of rifampicin ...

PURPOSE Several studies have shown that the intralesional concentration of rifampicin in osteoarticular tuberculosis is typically at a subtherapeutic level. Sustained or controlled release by novel drug delivery systems has been investigated to maintain an effective rifampicin concentration, but the local administration of rifampicin remains controversial. Additionally, it is still unclear whet...