Quality control in antimicrobial disk susceptibility testing: a Belgian multicenter study.
A Belgian multicenter trial was conducted to evaluate problems encountered with quality control results of antimicrobial disk susceptibility testing and to compare the performance of BBL disks and Rosco tablets. Over a period of four weeks 18 laboratories daily tested three reference strains against eight antibiotics. A standardised method was used by all participants. For all results together 10.4% and 7.3% of the measurements with BBL disks and Rosco tablets, respectively, were outside the recommended range. Major problems were observed for some specific strain-antibiotic combinations. Standard deviations were similar for both systems; their precision was comparable. The results suggest that cooperation between manufacturers and some reference laboratories could be improved in order to establish optimal quality control limits.
Lauwers
S
S
Department of Microbiology, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
Philippe
J
J
Van Zeebroeck
A
A
Pierard
D
D
Derde
M P
MP
Kaufman
L
L
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D001530:Belgium; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects; D011786:Quality Control; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents