[Susceptibility of Streptococcus pyogenes to macrolides and quinolones in Guadalajara, Spain]

We carried out a retrospective study of the susceptibility of 104 Streptococcus pyogenes strains, which were isolated in 2000 and 2001 from clinical samples of different origins, to penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, ofloxacin and levofloxacin. The susceptibility testing was performed using the agar difusion method according to the guidelines of the NCCLS. All of the isolates showed susceptibility to penicillin and clindamycin. However, we detected 11 strains that were resistant to erythromycin (10.6%) and 4 strains resistant to ofloxacin (3.8%). We studied the resistance phenotypes of macrolides and lincosamides using erythromycin and clindamycin discs. Nine of the eleven strains that were resistant to erythromycin showed an M phenotype, while the remaining two showed inducible resistance to clindamycin, thus suggesting an MLS(B) inducible phenotype. No strains with constitutive resistance to erythromycin or clindamycin (MLS(B) constitutive phenotype) were identified. While penicillin is still uniformly active against S. pyogenes, in Guadalajara, there are 10.6% strains that are resistant to 14- and 15-atoms macrolides.