摘要：In many countries, fluoroquinolones are among the most commonly used antibacterial drugs. Concernsabout bacterial resistance to these and other frequently used drugs have been raised by the medicaland scientific communities. While fluoroquinolone resistance has not yet developed among manybacteria, emergence of resistance in Escherichia coli would be a problem as multiple resistances toother antibiotics is now a common problem. This paper examines trends in resistance to fluoro-quinolones in Escherichia coli through analysis of data collected from Australian institutions between1997 and 2001. During the study period, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin were the most frequentlytested fluoroquinolones in Australian laboratories. An examination of results for strains tested simult-aneously against both drugs indicated that testing against either drug accurately predicted resistanceor susceptibility for the other (99.7% agreement). Over 400,000 tests were performed to determinethe fluoroquinolone susceptibility of E. coli. Data were analysed by the test method used (CalibratedDichotomous Sensitivity (CDS) or National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS)). Thedata indicate that fluoroquinolone resistance in E. coli has not yet emerged as a significant problemin Australia, but there are some indications of low level increases in resistance rates. Norfloxacinresults are likely to be a better guide to fluoroquinolone resistance in this species using this methodof surveillance
