Antibacterial activities of amoxicillin alone and in combination with clavulanic acid correlated with beta-lactamase production.

Amoxicillin, a beta-lactam antibiotic, was tested for its effect in combination with clavulanic acid, a beta-lactamase inhibitor, against 9 species of bacteria isolated from clinical specimens. A total of 698 strains of bacteria were tested for beta-lactamase production by the rapid chromogenic cephalosporin method. Their susceptibilities to amoxicillin alone and in combination with clavulanic acid were tested by the agar dilution method. The percentage of beta-lactamase producing strains ranged from 46.6% in Proteus mirabilis to 100% in Klebsiella pneumoniac. In general, beta-lactamase nonproducers were more susceptible to amoxicillin than beta-lactamase producers. For beta-lactamase producers, clavulanic acid decreased the MICs of amoxicillin prominently in strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli, K. pneumoniae, P. mirabilis, Enterobacter cloacae and Bacteroides fragilis, when combining clavulanic acid with amoxicillin in the ratio of 1:2. Their MIC50s, MIC90s and geometric means of MICs all decreased 4 folds or greater. For beta-lactamase non-producing strains, the MICs did not show significant differences by adding clavulanic acid in most species we tested, including methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, N. gonorrhoeae, H. influenzae, Proteus vulgaris and E. cloacae.