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How does susceptibility prevalence impact on the performance of disk diffusion susceptibility testing?

Antimicrobial disk diffusion susceptibility testing, devoted in a clinical context to predicting whether an antibiotic regimen will be effective, should be evaluated through predictive values. This approach implies that the susceptibility prevalence (frequency of susceptible, intermediate, and resistant isolates) affects the predictive value of a result. We quantified the influence of the susceptibility prevalence variation on the disk diffusion method performance through a modeling approach. Simulations based on a resampling procedure from two distinct minimum inhibitory concentration/diameter data sets were performed. Experimental variability on minimum inhibitory concentration and diameters was taken into account in the simulations. Results show that the susceptibility prevalence impact depends on the antibiotic and may be significant when prevalence variation is high enough. Consequences of these results on zone diameter breakpoint determination policy are discussed. This implies that the following should be done: (i) consider more rigorously the susceptibility prevalence in studies dealing with zone diameter breakpoint determination and performance evaluation, (ii) re-evaluate disk diffusion breakpoint consistency when the weight of prevalence variation is noteworthy, (iii) estimate consequences of a breakpoint international consensus on prediction quality and appropriate patient management.

Agar↗

Disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of members of the family Legionellaceae including erythromycin-resistant variants of Legionella micdadei.

Disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of members of the family Legionellaceae was accomplished on buffered charcoal yeast extract agar by allowing the bacteria to grow for 6 h before placement of the disks, followed by an additional 42-h incubation period before the inhibitory zones were measured. This system was standardized by comparing the zone sizes with the MICs for 20 antimicrobial agents of nine bacterial strains in five Legionella species and of 19 laboratory-derived, erythromycin-resistant variants of Legionella micdadei. A high, linear correlation between zone size and MIC was found for erythromycin, trimethoprim, penicillin, ampicillin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, cefamandole, cefoxitin, moxalactam, chloramphenicol, vancomycin, and clindamycin. Disk susceptibility testing could be employed to screen Legionella isolates for resistance to any of these antimicrobial agents, of which only erythromycin is known to be efficacious in the treatment of legionellosis. With selected antibiotics, disk susceptibility patterns also appeared to accurately identify to the species level the legionellae. The range of the MICs of the legionellae for rifampin and the aminoglycosides was too small to determine whether the correlation of zone size with MIC was linear. However, laboratory-derived, high-level rifampin-resistant variants of L. micdadei demonstrated no inhibition zone around the rifampin disk, indicating that disk susceptibility testing would likely identify a rifampin-resistant clinical isolate. Of the antimicrobial agents tested, the only agents for which disk susceptibility testing was definitely not possible on buffered charcoal yeast extract agar were oxacillin, the tetracyclines, and the sulfonamides.

Aminoglycosides↗

New recommendations for disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility tests for methicillin-resistant (heteroresistant) staphylococci.

The agar disk diffusion susceptibility test was reevaluated for its ability to discriminate between susceptible and resistant Staphylococcus aureus (128 strains) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (19 strains) when tested with methicillin, oxacillin, and nafcillin. The results show that the current recommendations for disk potencies and interpretive zone diameters do not fit well with MIC correlates that we now recommend. Based on data from this study, we suggest that these parameters of the test be changed. For methicillin, we recommend a 10-micrograms disk with breakpoints of less than or equal to 11 mm (greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml) to indicate resistance and greater than or equal to 15 mm (less than or equal to 4 micrograms/ml) to indicate susceptibility. For oxacillin and nafcillin, we recommend 4-micrograms disks with breakpoints of less than or equal to 12 mm (greater than or equal to 8 micrograms/ml) to indicate resistance and greater than or equal to 16 mm (less than or equal to 2 micrograms/ml) to indicate susceptibility. MIC breakpoints were from a broth microdilution system which used a medium containing salt. If one of these three penicillins were to be selected for routine tests, we would recommend oxacillin, based on our data, but we recognize that this may depend upon the population of staphylococci within a particular hospital.

Cephalothin↗

Multilaboratory evaluation of disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Neisseria meningitidis isolates.

In 2005, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute published MIC interpretive criteria for 13 antimicrobial agents used for either therapy or prophylaxis of Neisseria meningitidis infections. The MIC method includes the use of lysed horse blood-supplemented Mueller-Hinton broth with incubation in 5% CO2 for 20 to 24 h. Since some clinical laboratories might prefer the option of disk diffusion testing for infrequently encountered isolates a multicenter collaborative study was conducted to evaluate the reproducibility of a disk diffusion method for testing isolates of N. meningitidis. Interpretive criteria were developed for 12 antimicrobial agents. Four laboratories tested a common collection of 50 meningococcal strains and then tested 25 unique isolates per laboratory. Isolates were tested using Mueller-Hinton sheep blood agar plates incubated for 20 to 24 h in 5% CO2; they were also tested by the reference broth microdilution method in parallel. Pooling of the MIC and disk diffusion data from the common and unique isolates provided a sufficient sample size to develop susceptible, intermediate, and resistant zone diameter interpretive criteria using the error rate-bounded method for the following agents: chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, and rifampin. Due to the lack of resistant strains at the present time, "susceptible only" interpretive criteria were proposed for cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, meropenem, azithromycin, and minocycline. The numbers of minor interpretive errors with penicillin and ampicillin disk tests were unacceptably high and precluded recommended testing of those agents by the disk method. However, amdinocillin, an agent that preferentially binds to the altered penicillin binding protein responsible for diminished penicillin susceptibility, has potential utility as a surrogate screening reagent for ampicillin resistance. A disk diffusion breakpoint was derived for nalidixic acid to serve as a surrogate marker for gyrase A mutations associated with diminished fluoroquinolone susceptibility. Disk diffusion testing with meningococci can be performed in a reproducible manner with several antimicrobial agents and represents a practical and cost-effective option for testing sporadic clinical isolates or for surveillance purposes by resource-limited laboratories.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Evaluation of a direct blood culture disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility test.

A total of 556 unique blood culture isolates of nonfastidious aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria were examined by direct and standardized disk susceptibility test methods (4,234 antibiotic-organism comparisons). When discrepancies which could be accounted for by the variability inherent in disk diffusion susceptibility tests were excluded, the direct method demonstrated 96.8% overall agreement with the standardized method. A total of 1.6% minor, 1.5% major, and 0.1% very major discrepancies were noted.

Bacteria↗

Disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing for clinical and epidemiologic purposes.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing is one of the most important and useful tests performed by the clinical microbiology laboratory. The value of disk susceptibility testing in epidemiology is enhanced by its simplicity of performance, reproducibility of results, and ability to indicate whether a single strain is likely to be the cause of many infections. By using a specific set of antimicrobials for either gram-positive or gram-negative bacterial susceptibility testing and by following recommended testing procedures, laboratories can reliably identify similarities and differences in strains. We propose a list of antimicrobial agents chosen specifically for their value in disk susceptibility testing for clinical and epidemiologic purposes and describe the recommended methods of testing.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Development of interpretive criteria and quality control limits for broth microdilution and disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

A five-center collaborative study was undertaken to develop quality control and specific interpretive criteria for susceptibility testing of Streptococcus pneumoniae against 12 antimicrobial agents. MICs were determined for 248 pneumococcal clinical isolates (with an emphasis on resistant strains) by use of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS)-recommended broth microdilution procedure incorporating lysed horse blood-supplemented Mueller-Hinton broth. NCCLS disk diffusion testing was also performed for each isolate by using Mueller-Hinton sheep blood agar incubated in 5% CO2. Repetitive testing of S. pneumoniae ATCC 49619 with different sources and lots of media and disks allowed development of quality control ranges which encompassed approximately 95% of MIC and zone size values observed in the study. Good intra- and interlaboratory reproducibilities were seen with these testing methods and all of the drugs examined. On the basis of the results of this study, MIC interpretive criteria are proposed for 11 agents. Comparisons of MICs and disk diffusion zone sizes allowed disk diffusion zone size interpretive criteria to be proposed for five drugs and confirmed the use of the oxacillin disk test for prediction of penicillin susceptibility among pneumococci. Excessive numbers of minor-category interpretive errors precludes recommendation at this time of the disk diffusion method for testing of pneumococci against five of the drugs. Use of these proposed quality control and interpretive criteria should provide for reproducible test results and allow recognition of recently emerging resistance among pneumococcal clinical isolates.

Diffusion↗

Tentative interpretive standards for agar disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility testing of cefoperazone.

Cefoperazone is a new cephalosporin with a very wide spectrum of activity, including activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It has less activity on enterococci and Acinetobacter. Of the 459 selected bacterial strains tested in this study, only 1.5% (7 strains and 6 genera) had minimum inhibitory concentrations of greater than or equal to 128 micrograms/ml. For a minimum inhibitory concentration breakpoint of less than or equal to 32 micrograms/ml (susceptible), we recommend that the disk diffusion test be done with a 75-micrograms disk and breakpoints of greater than or equal to 18 mm for susceptible, 15 to 17 mm for intermediate, and less than or equal to 14 mm for resistant. Diffusion tests using these criteria yielded only 1.1% very major or major errors.

Acinetobacter↗

Quality control limits for the agar overlay disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility test.

Replicate control tests were performed with the agar overlay and Kirby-Bauer techniques, using two sources of Mueller-Hinton agar. Mean zones observed with the two methods differed by 1 to 3 mm. Despite the minor differences between methods, National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards quality control limits which were established for the Kirby-Bauer method could also be used for the agar overlay technique.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Reproducibility of broth microdilution and disk diffusion susceptibility tests of nine antimicrobial agents against Streptococcus pneumoniae ATCC 49619.

Collaborative studies documented the reproducibility of broth microdilution susceptibility tests of Streptococcus pneumoniae against nine antimicrobial agents and of disk diffusion tests with six of those drugs. Replicate tests of Streptococcus pneumoniae ATCC 49619 in five different laboratories led to the following provisional quality control limits: cefdinir--0.03 to 0.25 microgram/ml and 26 to 31 mm; cefetamet--0.5 to 2 micrograms/ml and 20 to 25 mm; ciprofloxacin--0.25 to 1 microgram/ml and 20 to 26 mm; clinafloxacin--0.03 to 0.125 microgram/ml and 28 to 34 mm; grepafloxacin--0.06 to 0.5 microgram/ml and 21 to 28 mm; PD131628--0.125 to 0.5 microgram/ml and 24 to 29 mm; clindamycin--0.03 to 0.12 microgram/ml; cefpodoxime--0.03 to 0.12 microgram/ml; and trospectomycin--1 to 4 microgram/ml (disk tests were not evaluate for the latter three drugs).

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of less commonly isolated Haemophilus species using Haemophilus test medium.

Haemophilus test medium (HTM) was developed recently for dilution and disk diffusion antimicrobial agent susceptibility testing of Haemophilus influenzae. The application of HTM to the testing of other, less frequently encountered Haemophilus species recovered from humans was evaluated in this study by using commercially prepared HTM (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md.) in broth microdilution and agar disk diffusion susceptibility tests with 18 antimicrobial agents. A total of 93.3% of 90 isolates belonging to six Haemophilus species provided acceptable growth in HTM agar disk diffusion tests, while only 63.3% (57 of 90) provided acceptable growth in the broth microdilution tests. However, HTM agar dilution testing provided an alternative method for those strains (primarily H. haemolyticus) which failed to grow adequately in broth. Based on the latest National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards guidelines (standard M2-T4) for interpretation of HTM disk tests of H. influenzae, the overall very major, major, and minor errors for all 18 drugs and six species tested were 0.2, 0.7, and 3.4%, respectively. Thus, the use of HTM in agar or broth susceptibility tests can be recommended for testing the less commonly encountered Haemophilus species by using the same test conditions and interpretive guidelines developed for H. influenzae.

Culture Media↗

LY164846 in vitro antimicrobial activity testing, including disk diffusion susceptibility tests using 30-microgram disks.

A new oral cephalosporin, LY164846 (Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.), was found to have a unique antimicrobial spectrum confined to methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus spp., streptococci (except Enterococcus spp.), Haemophilus influenzae, Branhamella catarrhalis, and some anaerobes. Cephalothin in vitro tests (30-microgram disks or dilution) can represent LY164846 for laboratory testing if comparable interpretive breakpoints are applied to strains within the spectrum of LY164846. Organisms not inhibited by LY164846 (MICs greater than or equal to 32 micrograms/ml) were members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp., Acinetobacter spp., enterococci, and some strains of Staphylococcus haemolyticus and of the Bacteroides fragilis group.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Evaluation of in vitro antibacterial activity of enoxacin: comparison with other orally absorbed antimicrobial agents, proposed disk diffusion test interpretive criteria, and quality control limits.

The antibacterial activity of enoxacin was assessed by a standard microdilution susceptibility test method against 6,096 consecutive clinical isolates at four clinical laboratories and compared with that of norfloxacin and cefaclor. Its activity was comparable to that of norfloxacin; both inhibited over 90% of Enterobacteriaceae at 0.5 micrograms/ml. Resistance to enoxacin [minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) greater than 4 micrograms/ml] was observed in only 18 of 4,076 Enterobacteriaceae (0.5%, 36 of 650 nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli (5.5%), and 6 of 836 staphylococci (0.7%). Relatively poor activity was observed against streptococci. An additional 618 selected clinical isolates were tested with enoxacin and were compared with nine other orally absorbed antimicrobial agents. The greatest activity was observed with enoxacin, norfloxacin, and cotrimoxazole, but some difference were noted with individual species. Results of enoxacin disk diffusion susceptibility testing of 487 isolates were correlated with the MICs, analyzed, and interpretive criteria were determined. With MIC breakpoints of: susceptible = less than or equal to 2.0 micrograms/ml, intermediate = 4.0 micrograms/ml, and resistant = greater than 4.0 micrograms/ml, the corresponding preliminary disk diffusion zone diameter breakpoints for the 10-micrograms enoxacin disk are: susceptible greater than or equal to 18 mm, intermediate 15-17 mm, and resistant less than or equal to 14 mm. Quality control zone diameter limits were determined for three standard QC organisms.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Potential unreliability of nitrofurantoin disks in susceptibility testing.

The Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility test was studied with three lots of commercial nitrofurantoin disks by using 50 strains of Proteus mirabilis. One lot of disks consistently gave zone diameters 3 to 6 mm larger than the other two and resulted in a substantial number of Proteus mirabilis strains being erroneously categorized as sensitive. Antimicrobial content in disks of the three lots did not account for these differences. The pH of eluate from the unreliable disks was higher than from disks of the other two and resulted in more rapid diffusion of the antimicrobial and consequently larger zones of inhibition.

Anti-Infective Agents, Urinary↗

Assessment of accuracy of disk diffusion tests for the determination of antimicrobial susceptibility of common bovine mastitis pathogens: a novel approach.

A novel approach was used to assess disk diffusion accuracy for determination of antibiotic susceptibility of various bovine mastitis pathogens (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus chromogenes, and Streptococcus dysgalactiae). MIC and disk diffusion diameters were compared for 587 bovine mastitis bacterial isolates collected in Israel and 3,186 drug-organism combinations. Results were analyzed by ROC curves, Bayesian statistics, and standard descriptive methods. Low correlation was observed between results of disk diffusion and MIC for S. dysgalactiae and all antimicrobial agents, S. aureus and erythromycin and neomycin, and E. coli and gentamicin, neomycin, and polymyxin B. On a few occasions in which correlation was satisfactory, accepted susceptibility breakpoints to some of the antimicrobial agents resulted in high discrepancies with MIC results and new breakpoints were suggested-e.g., 21 mm for S. aureus susceptibility to penicillin G instead of 29 mm recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) and <21 mm, resistant, 21-25 mm, intermediate, and >25 mm, susceptible for susceptibility of E. coli to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Thus, this approach enabled determination of the most accurate breakpoints that best fitted the specific prevalence of susceptibility in Israel. Thus, we suggest its adoption by microbiology diagnostic laboratories for the provision of accurate antimicrobial susceptibility results when using the disk diffusion test.

Animals↗