  Many of the properties of massive stars in external galaxies, such as
chemical compositions, mass functions, and ionizing fluxes, can be derived from
the study of the associated clouds of ionized gas. Moreover, the signatures of
Wolf-Rayet stars are often detected in the spectra of extragalactic H II
regions. This paper reviews some aspects of the recent work on the massive star
content of nearby spiral galaxies, as inferred from the analysis of giant H II
regions. Particular attention is given to regions of high metallicity,
including nuclear hot spots, and to the chemical abundance comparison between
supergiant stars and ionized gas.
