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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 1998, p. 2052-2056, Vol. 36, No. 7
Department of Pathology, University of
Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama,1
and
Dade MicroScan, Inc., West Sacramento,
California2
Received 4 December 1997/Returned for modification 16 March
1998/Accepted 24 April 1998
Studies were conducted on a method of direct inoculation of
MicroScan dried overnight and of rapid panels with positive aerobic blood cultures obtained from the BacT/Alert to determine antimicrobial susceptibilities. Inocula were limited to specimens that appeared unimicrobic on Gram stain. Results were compared to those obtained from
panels inoculated following subculture. For 133 gram-negative bacilli,
there were 94.7 and 93.5% categorical agreements between direct and
standard methods for all drugs tested with overnight and rapid panels,
respectively. For 104 gram-positive cocci, there were 93.2 and 93.1%
categorical agreements for overnight and rapid panels,
respectively. The major error (false resistance) rate for gram
negatives was 1.4% for overnight versus 0.7% for rapid panels. The
very major error (false susceptibility) rate was 2.7% for
overnight versus 8.1% for rapid panels. The total error rates were
1.6% for overnight panels and 1.5% for rapid panels. The major error
rates for gram-positive direct susceptibility tests were 2.6% for
overnight and 2.5% for rapid panels. The very major error rates were
8.8 and 7.2% for overnight and rapid panels, respectively. Total error
rates were 3.6% for overnight and rapid gram-positive panels. These
findings suggest that susceptibility results obtained from directly
inoculated gram-negative overnight panels have the greatest correlation
to those obtained by standard methods. When discrepant results
occur with direct-susceptibility testing, they are more likely to show
false susceptibility than false resistance.
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Direct Susceptibility Testing with Positive BacT/Alert Blood
Cultures by Using MicroScan Overnight and Rapid Panels
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathology, WP 230, University of Alabama at Birmingham,
Birmingham, AL 35233. Phone: (205) 934-6421. Fax: (205)
975-4468. E-mail: Waites{at}path.uab.edu.
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