Results from various clarithromycin studies presented. (32nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy)

ICAAC

The following are the results of various studies on clarithromycin, all presented at the 32nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), held in Anaheim, California, October 11-14, 1992.

Bactericidal Activity Against M. Avium

Clarithromycin (Biaxin, Abbott), alone or in multi-drug combinations, demonstrates bactericidal activity against M. avium by significantly reducing the number of organisms in an experimentally infected beige mouse model, according to a study presented by Baohong Ji, M.D., Faculte de Medecine Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, France, during ICAAC.

Mycobacterium avium complex is the most common cause of disseminated bacterial infection in patients with AIDS. "Clarithromycin is one of the very few antimicrobials that show activity against M. avium in vitro, in vivo and in patients, " said Ji. "However, treatment of M. avium infections in AIDS patients cannot depend on any single agent because of the emergence of drug resistance. In this study, we tried to identify the companion drugs that may enhance the efficacy of clarithromycin and prevent the emergence of resistance."

Ji and his colleagues compared the bactericidal activities of six clarithromycin-containing combined regimens with that of clarithromycin alone among M. avium-infected beige mice. Fourteen days after infection, mice were allocated into untreated …