Investigation for proper use of probiotics in Nagasaki University Hospital of Medicine and Dentistry

Abstract

Antimicrobial agents sometimes cause the adverse effects of diarrhea and loose stool. Antibiotic-resistant lactic acid bacteria are used to prevent these adverse effects. The bacteria are not resistant to several antimicrobial agents, although the bacterium preparations are sometimes prescribed the antimicrobial agents concomitantly. Therefore this paper reports that the minimal inhibitory concentration of three new antimicrobial agents against antibiotic-resistant lactic acid bacteria were determined using a microdilution method with cation-adjusted Mueller-Hinton broth. Furthermore, we investigated antimicrobial agents that are prescribed concomitantly with antibiotic-resistant lactic acid bacterium preparations or a clostridium butyricum preparation. The bacteria were susceptible to the three new antimicrobial agents. Approximately 50% of the bacterium preparations were prescribed alone, and 30% were prescribed concomitantly with antimicrobial agents that show antimicrobial activity against the bacteria. Consequently, we suggest that pharmacists need to confirm prescriptions and to provide more drug information on antibiotic-resistant lactic acid bacterium preparations. © 2006 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.