Cross Sensitivity of Aminoglycosides and Fluoroquinolones From Culture and Antibiogram of Patients With Pulmonary Infections

Context: Anti Tubercular drug resistance is a major contributor to microbial drug resistance. With the accelerated resistance of antibiotics to various pulmonary diseases, it is essential to prioritize effective use of antibiotics, by reserving Anti-Tubercular (Tb) drugs for tuberculosis and substituting other agents of the same class of antibiotics for any other pulmonary diseases. Aims: To discover the cross-sensitivity patterns of three aminoglycosides-gentamicin, amikacin, netilmicin and three fluoroquinolones-sparfloxacin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin with an intention to reserve levofloxacin and amikacin as antitubercular drugs and replace them with either of the other drugs for pulmonary infections other than TB. Settings and Design: A Prospective observational study conducted in Owaisi Group of Hospitals, Telangana, India. Methods and Material: A 8 months study was  conducted  on 100 patients of age group 12- 85 with various respiratory infections other than tuberculosis. Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) technique was used to find out the sensitivity of bacteria from patient’s sensitivity reports of sputum isolate, endotracheal secretions and Bronchoalveolar Lavage to determine antibiotic sensitivity. Statistical Analysis: Mean averages of various samples, T-test. Results: For sensitivity of the three aminoglycosides-gentamicin, amikacin, netilmicin, 93% of the patients that showed sensitivity to amikacin were also sensitive to Gentamicin, and 86% of them also showed sensitivity to Netilmicin. For the three fluoroquinolones - sparfloxacin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin shows a sensitivity overlap of 78.8% and Sparfloxacin 80.1% to that of levofloxacin. Conclusions: A significant overlap between sensitivities of aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones , is seen giving rise to substituting them with one another in order to prevent a future resistance of antitubercular antibiotics by saving and reserving the drug until the patient contacts tuberculosis. Funding Statement: None to declare. Declaration of Interests: None to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: Approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Owaisi hospital and research centre, Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. Informed consent was collected from all subjects who participated in the study.