There is growing evidence of applicability of the hypothesis of the mutant selection window (MSW), i.e., the range between the MIC and the mutant prevention concentration (MPC), within which the enrichment of resistant mutants is most probable. However, it is not clear if MPC-based pharmacokinetic variables are preferable to the respective MIC-based variables as interstrain predictors of resistance. To examine the predictive power of the ratios of the area under the curve (AUC 24 ) to the MPC and to the MIC, the selection of ciprofloxacin-resistant mutants of three Klebsiella pneumoniae strains with different MPC/MIC ratios was studied. Each organism was exposed to twice-daily ciprofloxacin for 3 days at AUC 24 /MIC ratios that provide peak antibiotic concentrations close to the MIC, between the MIC and the MPC, and above the MPC. Resistant K. pneumoniae mutants were intensively enriched at an AUC 24 /MIC ratio of 60 to 360 h (AUC 24 /MPC ratio from 2.5 to 15 h) but not at the lower or higher AUC 24 /MIC and AUC 24 /MPC ratios, in accordance with the MSW hypothesis. AUC 24 /MPC and AUC 24 /MIC relationships with areas under the time courses of ciprofloxacin-resistant K. pneumoniae (AUBC M ) were bell shaped. These relationships predict highly variable "antimutant" AUC 24 /MPC ratios (20 to 290 h) compared to AUC 24 /MIC ratios (1,310 to 2,610 h). These findings suggest that the potential of the AUC 24 /MPC ratio as an interstrain predictor of K. pneumoniae resistance is lower than that of the AUC 24 /MIC ratio.A n increasing number of reports on the isolation of resistant pathogens (1, 2) combined with a weak antibiotic pipeline suggests that optimization of antibiotic therapy should be aimed at the suppression of resistance (3, 4). In this regard, dynamic models that mimic antimicrobial pharmacokinetics in vitro have been proven to be a useful tool in predicting the amplification of resistant mutants at clinically achievable antibiotic concentrations (5). Using these models, bell-shaped relationships have been established between the emergence of resistance to fluoroquinolones and the ratios of 24-hour area under the concentration-time curve (AUC 24 ) to the MIC (6-17). Such relationships have been reported with moxifloxacin, gatifloxacin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, the investigational fluoroquinolone ABÒ492, pazufloxacin, tosufloxacin, and garenoxacin against Staphylococcus aureus (6-8, 14-16); moxifloxacin against Streptococcus pneumoniae (12, 13); garenoxacin against Klebsiella pneumoniae (15); ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11, 12); and ciprofloxacin, marbofloxacin, and enrofloxacin against Escherichia coli (9,10,17). In some of these studies (6-15, 17, 18), changes in susceptibility of antibiotic-exposed bacteria and/or their enrichment with resistant mutants was observed at fluoroquinolone concentrations above the MIC but below the mutant prevention concentration (MPC), i.e., inside the mutant selection window (MSW) but not outside the MSW, in accordance with the MSW hypo...