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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 1999, p. 1676-1682, Vol. 37, No. 6
Department of Pathology, University of Texas
Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-07401;
Microbiology Service, Clinical Pathology Department, W. G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
Maryland 208922; Department of
Pathology, University of Texas
Received 17 December 1998/Returned for modification 6 February
1999/Accepted 27 February 1999
A multicenter study was conducted to assess the interlaboratory
reproducibility of broth microdilution testing of the more common
rapidly growing pathogenic mycobacteria. Ten isolates (four Mycobacterium fortuitum group, three Mycobacterium
abscessus, and three Mycobacterium chelonae isolates)
were tested against amikacin, cefoxitin, ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin,
doxycycline, imipenem, sulfamethoxazole, and tobramycin (M. chelonae only) in four laboratories. At each site, isolates were
tested three times on each of three separate days (nine testing events
per isolate) with a common lot of microdilution trays. Agreement among MICs (i.e., mode ± 1 twofold dilution) varied considerably for the different drug-isolate combinations and overall was best for cefoxitin (91.7 and 97.2% for one isolate each and 100% for all others), followed by doxycycline, amikacin, and ciprofloxacin. Agreement based on the interpretive category, using currently suggested
breakpoints, also varied and overall was best for doxycycline (97.2%
for one isolate and 100% for the rest), followed by ciprofloxacin and
clarithromycin. Reproducibility among MICs and agreement by interpretive category was most variable for imipenem. Based on results
reported from the individual sites, it appears that inexperience contributed significantly to the wide range of MICs of several drugs,
especially clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin, and sulfamethoxazole. New
interpretive guidelines are presented for the testing of M. fortuitum against clarithromycin; M. abscessus and
M. chelonae against the aminoglycosides; and all three
species against cefoxitin, doxycycline, and imipenem.
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Multisite Reproducibility of Results Obtained by
the Broth Microdilution Method for Susceptibility Testing of
Mycobacterium abscessus, Mycobacterium
chelonae, and Mycobacterium fortuitum
Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas
770303; StatProbe, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 481084; and Department of
Microbiology, University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, Tyler,
Texas 757105
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
77555-0740. Phone: (409) 772-4851. Fax: (409) 772-5683. E-mail:
gwoods{at}utmb.edu.
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