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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Apr 1996, 1024-1026, Vol 34, No. 4
Copyright © 1996 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Susceptibility testing of Propionibacterium acnes comparing agar dilution with E test

MA Smith, P Alperstein, K France, EM Vellozzi and HD Isenberg
Department of Medicine, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, New York 11042, USA.

Propionibacterium acnes has been identified as a significant agent of nosocomial infections, including endophthalmitis. Data concerning susceptibility of P. acnes to newer beta-lactam antibiotics and fluoroquinolones are limited. Recent reports suggest that quinolones have activity against these organisms sufficient to warrant further study. We undertook a study to select appropriate antimicrobial agents for use in a rabbit model of P. acnes endophthalmitis. We compared the antibiotic susceptibilities of P. acnes by using the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards method of agar dilution with the E test. Thirteen clinical isolates obtained from eye specimens and three American Type Culture Collection control strains were tested against 14 antibiotics. All the clinical isolates were susceptible by both methods to piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, ampicillin-sulbactam, ticarcillin-clavulanate, cefotaxime, cefotetan, ceftriaxone, cefoxitin, and imipenem in addition to clindamycin but were resistant to metronidazole. The clinical P. acnes isolates also displayed high-level susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, sparfloxacin, and ofloxacin. Almost all the P. acnes strains demonstrated E-test MICs within 2 dilutions of the MICs observed by the agar dilution method. Those few strains for which discrepancies were noted exhibited E-test susceptibilities three- to fivefold dilutions lower than the agar dilution method susceptibilities but only with ampicillin-sulbactam, ticarcillin- clavulanate, and/or clindamycin. On the basis of our study, all of clinical eye isolates were susceptible to these newer antimicrobial agents and the two methods demonstrated similar susceptibility patterns.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Shames, R., Satti, F., Vellozzi, E. M., Smith, M. A. (2006). Susceptibilities of Propionibacterium acnes Ophthalmic Isolates to Ertapenem, Meropenem, and Cefepime. J. Clin. Microbiol. 44: 4227-4228 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Dali, P., Giugliano, E. R., Vellozzi, E. M., Smith, M. A. (2001). Susceptibilities of Propionibacterium acnes Ophthalmic Isolates to Moxifloxacin. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 45: 2969-2970 [Full Text]