[The combination effects of antibacterial agents against clinical isolated multiple-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa].

The effectiveness of antibacterial agents against 70 strains of clinically isolated multiple-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) was measured by the micro dilution method. Fifty of all strains (71%) produced metallo-beta-lactamase and the IMP-1 gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The MIC90 (the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic necessary to inhibit the growth of 90% of bacterial strains) values of biapenem (BIPM), meropenem (MEPM), tazobactam/piperacillin (TAZ/PIPC), sulbactam/ cefoperazone (SBT/CPZ), cefepime (CFPM), ciprofloxacin (CPFX), pazufloxacin (PZFX), amikacin (AMK) and aztreonam (AZT) were found to be 265, 512, 256, 512, 512, 64, 128, 128 and 128 microg/mL, respectively. The in vitro combination effects of antibacterial agents were examined against 62 strains of MDRP and the synergy or additive effects were evaluated by fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index calculated by the checkerboard method. The combination of AMK and AZT showed synergy effects on 15/59 (25.4%) strains of MDRP. The synergy and additive effects on the MDRP strains were also found by the other antibacterial agents combination such as TAZ/PIPC and AMK, CFPM and AMK, and SBT/CPZ and AZT. These results suggested the necessity of further investigation of clinical usefulness.

[Antimicrobial susceptibility of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli isolated from human diarrheic samples].

One hundred forty-seven Campylobacter were isolated using 3,204 samples taken from sporadic diarrheic patients from January 2001 to December 2003. The detection rate of Campylobacter in 16 to 30 year old patients (12.9%, 83/641) was significantly higher than that in patients less than 16 years of age, 5%, (29/1,155) (p < 0.001) and more than 30 years of age, 2.5% (35/1,408) (p < 0.001), respectively. The highest detection rate was obtained from the stool of males in the 16 to 30 year old range during the months from May to August, 26% (32/123). If the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) breakpoint for resistance of gentamicin (GM), erythromycin (EM), ciprofloxacin (CPFX), tetracycline (TC) were defined tentatively > or = 16 microg/ml, > or = 16 microg/ml, > or = 2 microg/ml, > or = 16 microg/ml, the resistant rate would be 0.0%, 0.0%, 22.0%, 42.8% in C. jejuni, 0.0%, 62.5%, 62.5%, 87.5% in C. coli, respectively. All the Campylobacter isolates were susceptible to GM. Three of the 8 C. coli isolates were multi-resistant in EM, CPFX, and TC. Five highly EM resistant strains with an MIC of > or = 512 microg/ml did not show any zone around the EM disk; 7 susceptible strains with an MIC of less than 16 microg/ml showed = zones of 24mm to 36mm and revealed a good correlation with the Etest method and the agar dilution method. Between the two time periods of January 2001-June 2002 and July 2002-December 2003, the resistant rate of CPFX in C. jejuni decreased from 27.5% to 15.5%, however, that was not significant decrease (p = 0.133).

Weak surface anchoring energy of 4-cyano-4'-pentyl-1,1'-biphenyl on perfluoropolyether Langmuir-Blodgett films.

Functional director alignment layers are needed for high performance liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Reported herein is a novel polymer material for LC alignment, namely, perfluoropolyether (PFPE), which exhibits a weak surface anchoring energy for bend deformation and is amenable to simple fabrication of grooved surfaces by soft lithography, a surface topography desired for multistable LCDs. Liquid crystal optical cells fabricated using Langmuir-Blodgett films of PFPE (of variable thickness) exhibited weak surface anchoring energies on the order of 10(-5) Jm2 for the nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4'-pentyl-1,1'-biphenyl with no dependence on film thickness.