Paldimycin (U-70138F) is a new antimicrobial agent with activity against gram-positive cocci. Clinical isolates of staphylococci and streptococci were tested. MICs were higher in Mueller-Hinton broth than in nutrient broth. Change in pH had minimal effect on the MICs in either broth. When inoculum size was varied, an inoculum effect was observed. The gram-positive cocci tested were generally mo...

Two strains of gram-positive cocci highly resistant to vancomycin (MICs of 512 and 1,024 micrograms/ml) were isolated from blood cultures in two compromised patients. These organisms were identified as Leuconostoc spp. Leuconostoc spp. are gram-positive cocci found in vegetables and dairy products; they had not been isolated previously from clinical specimens. The susceptibility of eight Leucon...

Achromopeptidase, which has potent bacteriolytic activity for most of the gram-positive aerobic bacteria, was for the first time used for the lysis of anaerobic cocci. Most of the lysozyme-resistant gram-positive anaerobic cocci were lysed with this new enzyme. Peptococcus magnus was the only organism tested resistant to achromopeptidase. P. saccharolyticus was quite unusual because it was very...

OBJECTIVE To determine the correlation of Gram staining with the culture of bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with clinical features of ventilator-associated pneumonia from two adult trauma and surgical intensive care units. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of 252 samples of bronchoalveolar lavage from patients with clinical ventilator-associated pneumonia in trauma or surgical pos...

Clinical isolates of Peptococcus and Peptostreptococcus species and Streptococcus intermedius strains were obtained from local hospitals. After confirmed identification, each isolate was tested for the in vitro production of deoxyribonuclease, ribonuclease, coagulase, and hemolysins. Of the 60 strains studied, 18 had enzymatic activity. The variability of enzyme production suggests that such as...

The optical method of De Ley et al. (1970) for determining DNA/DNA homologies was reexamined. Several parameters such as incubation temperature, incubation time, DNA concentration and DNA fragment length were checked and the optimal conditions established. Hybridization data of several anaerobic Gram-positive cocci were compared with values obtained by the membrane filter technique. The agreeme...