[Comparative study, using 3 methods, of the sensitivity to metronidazole and ornidazole of anaerobic or related...

A comparative study of the sensitivity to metronidazole and ornidazole of 127 anaerobic or microaerophilic strains isolated from various clinical samples showed that the activity of both products was similar: the distribution of sensitive and resistant strains was identical. However, the in vitro activity level of metronidazole was slightly higher. This difference, though statistically significant, had no incidence on therapeutic indications. The determination of sensitivity towards the two nitroimidazoles was carried out by three methods: broth dilution and agar diffusion for metronidazole; and broth dilution and disk-broth for ornidazole. Two of these methods, broth dilution and disk-broth, gave concordant results. Conversely, the limits of the agar diffusion technique were shown to be related to independent biological factors such as bacterial motility and slow growth rate. The poor accuracy of this method limits its use in detecting total resistance.