In-vitro activity of enoxacin against gonococcal isolates in comparison with that of five other antibiotics

The in-vitro activity of enoxacin was investigated against 305 clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, including both penicillinase-producing strains (PPNG) and non-penicillinase producing strains (NPPNG), and compared with the activity of cefuroxime, acrosoxacin, spectinomycin, benzylpenicillin and ampicillin. Enoxacin was more active than the other antimicrobials tested, with an MIC90 value for the NPPNG organisms of 0.08 mg/l and for the PPNG organisms of 0.16 mg/l. Ten of the 305 isolates tested were resistant to spectinomycin; MICs of less than or equal to 0.08 mg/l were obtained for enoxacin against these organisms.

Intravenous nicardipine in Raynaud's phenomenon: a controlled trial

The hemodynamic effects of intravenously administered nicardipine (5 mg/h during 85 min) were investigated in 12 Raynaud patients and in 12 healthy volunteers in a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study. In both groups we found no change in systolic blood pressure, but a significant fall in diastolic blood pressure of 7 mm Hg (p less than 0.001). Heart rate increased 14 beats/min (p less than 0.001) and forearm blood flow increased 1.0 ml/100 ml/min (p less than 0.01) with a concomitant decrease of 10 arbitrary units (AU) in forearm vascular resistance (p less than 0.001). In healthy volunteers the recovery of the finger skin temperature after cold challenge improved significantly (p less than 0.05). In patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon we observed a significant (p less than 0.001) increase in skin temperature of 4.6 degrees C before cooling, together with a better recovery after cold induced vasospasm (p less than 0.001). In secondary Raynaud's patients, nicardipine caused no vasodilatation within the skin vessels. There were no significant correlations between the plasma nicardipine concentration and any of the observed pharmacological effects.

Epidemiological studies on Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in the United Kingdom

Seven hundred and seventy nine isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from the County of Avon, United Kingdom, were examined by auxotyping and penicillin susceptibility testing. Prototrophic strains which were heterogeneous as judge by penicillin susceptibility were the most commonly isolated and increased in prevalence over the three year period. The group most generally susceptible to penicillin required ArgHypUra for growth and decreased in prevalence over the three year period. Ten strains failed to grow on the auxotyping medium. Serogrouping was undertaken on 408 isolates. All strains reacting with the WI reagents were ArgHypUra requiring. However auxotypically similar strains (ArgHypUra) reacted with WII/WIII reagents suggesting a distinct and separately evolved group. Twenty four strains did not type with the serogrouping reagents. Using contact pairs, W-class serology was found to be a stable marker during natural transmission. However auxotypes were found to be unstable in 22 of 104 contact pairs and of these 18 involved a single requirement for proline. This very high incidence of instability with respect to this marker means it is not possible to reliably differentiate between the prototrophic group and the group with a single requirement for proline.