The action of certain sulphonamide drugs on the growth of bacteria in urine

Abstract

THIS paper records the results of an investigation of the action of sulphapyridine (M & B 693), sulphanilamide (sulphonamide P., B. W. and Co.), sulphathiazole (M & B 760) and sulphamethylthiazole (M & B 838) on Proteus vulgaris, Bacterium coli, Staphylococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus fcecalis, all isolated from the urine of patients suffering from cystitis. EXPERIMENTS I N FLASKS MethodsUrine passed by a healthy malc subject was sterilised by filtration through a Pasteur-Chamberland B filter. When onc of the drugs was t o be tested, the requisite amount was dissolved in the urine prior to filtration. In the majority of the experiments the concentration of drug used was 50 mg. per 100 c.c., a concentration easily attained clinically by oral administration. After filtration, the pH of the urine was adjusted as required by the addition of N Na0H or N HCI, the determinations being made by Ellis's capillator method (B.D.H.).The urine was dispensed in 25 C.C. amounts in small sterile flasks and inoculated with suitable dilutions of an 18-hour broth culture. The flasks were incubated at 37" C.In most experiments the number of bacteria present before and after incubation was estimated by inoculating melted and cooled agar in plates with 1-0 C.C. of the urine itself or of a suitable decimal dilution. The plates were incubated for 24 or 48 hours and the colonies counted. Occasionally, when the only information required was whether living bacteria were present or not, a loopful of the urine was spread ovcr the surface of an agar slope and another inoculated into a tube of broth. These subcultures were incubated a t 37" c.