The development of antibiotic
resistance as a consequence of chromosomal changes within a bacterial
organism as well as widespread use of particular antibiotic agents is
a growing concern in the health care community. Special Topics has
examined the literature from the past decade to spot trends in
antibiotic-resistance research. The top 20 papers in this field cover
a wide variety of topics, including data on resistance rates, tests of
various treatment regimens, the mechanics of resistance on a genetic
level, and methods for typing clinical isolates for study. Treatment
regimens reported here include bismuth in combination with
metronidazole and tetracycline for Helicobacter pylori
infections, and penicillin or cephalosporin for pneumococcal
pneumonia. Resistance trends data show statistically significant
increases—in some studies 40%—in antimicrobial resistance
throughout the global community. Suggestions to detect, report, and
prevent further inroads into antibiotic resistance are discussed,
including antibiotic control programs and better hygienic practices.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is discussed in
particular, as are the mutation frequencies of Escherichia coli
and Salmonella. Rounding out the top 20 are studies detailing
the use of vectors in gene replacement experiments to manipulate
antibiotic resistance.
Methodology
To construct this database,
papers were extracted based on title- and author-supplied keywords for
Antibiotic Resistance. The keywords used were as follows:
antibiotic
resistance*
or
antibiotic-resistance*
The baseline time span for this database
is 1992-2002. The resulting database contained 5,567 papers; 14,550 authors;
117 countries; 963 journals; and 3,494 institutions.
Rankings
Once the database was in place,
it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers, authors, journals,
institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1992-2002.
The top 20 papers are ranked according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper were as follows:
32, 26, 25, and 30, respectively.
