title: Comparison of E test and agar dilution for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Stenotrophomonas (Xanthomonas) maltophilia.
abstract: Currently recommended dilution test methods for the determination of antimicrobial susceptibility of Stenotrophomonas (Xanthomonas) maltophilia are labor-intensive and often impractical in many clinical laboratories. We compared the E test with the agar dilution method for susceptibility testing of 176 clinical isolates of S. maltophilia against 16 antimicrobial agents. The MICs obtained by E test correlated well with those determined by the agar dilution method, with an overall agreement of 94%. Very major and major errors occurred infrequently (0.6 to 2.9%) when testing beta-lactam agents, tobramycin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and fluoroquinolones. The E test was found to be accurate and easy to perform. For most antimicrobial agents tested against S. maltophilia, the E test is an acceptable alternative susceptibility test method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goodfellow
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Simor
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014974:Xanthomonas / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000362:Agar