Fluoroquinolone benchmarking in relation to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters

The expanding class of fluoroquinolone antibiotics comprises numerous agents that differ in pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics as well as pharmacodynamic (PD) activity. Although generally considered as potent compounds as a class, their individual in vitro activities, as measured by minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) demonstrate considerable variability. Objective pharmacological measures such as Cmax/MIC and AUC24/MIC, also known as area under the inhibitory curve (AUIC), have been shown to predict bacteriological eradication, clinical efficacy, emergence of resistant substrains and economic results. These PK/PD measures describe in vivo potency and can provide scientific guidance to clinicians when deciding which agent to use at the bedside of individual patients, and to healthcare administrators when deciding the formulary status for individual agents.