Antibiotic-induced release of endotoxin in chronically bacteriuric patients

Abstract

A novel in vivo model for the study of antibiotic-induced release of endotoxin from gram-negative bacteria is described. The model uses the chronically colonized urinary tracts of patients whose spinal cords have been injured. At baseline, the organisms were present in the range of 1 x 103 to 2 x 107 CFU/ml, and the concentration of endotoxin ranged from 2 x 10-1 to 1 x 103 ng/ml in 44 studies. In 10 control studies, the concentration of endotoxin and the numbers of viable gram-negative bacteria over time changed by an average of less than 0.15 log10 units from the baseline values. At 2 h after antibiotic administration, the average decrease in CFU was 0.93 log10 units, and because antibioti..