Abstract
Bacteraemic infections have become the major cause of mortality and morbidity in cancer patients. Floroquinolones have broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity and have increasingly been used for prophylaxis against infection in cancer patients. The activity of these fluoroquinolones was evaluated in cancer patients undergoing treatment against 60 g +ve and -ve bacterial strains isolated from blood cultures. The susceptibility was determined by broth dilution method according to National Committee Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS), USA guidelines. The overall respective MICs at which 50% and 90% of isolates were inhibited (MIC5Os and MIC90s) were as follows ciprofloxacin, 4 and 8ug/mL; ofloxacin, 16 and 64ug/mL; pefloxacin, 16 and 128ug/mL. The percent resistance of gram negative bacterial isolates against ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin was 80%, 95% and 100% respectively. In gram positive bacteria high resistance was observed against ciprofloxacin where only 15% strains were susceptible in methecillin susceptible Styphlococcus aureus and 12% in methecillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Where as 100% resistance were observed in case of pefloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin against both methecillin resistant and methecillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. High resistance observed in this study against clinical isolates of cancer patients against potent antimicrobial agent warrants the need of monitoring susceptibility of bacterial isolates from cancer patients for better management and treatment of patients.
