title: Quality assessment of Microbe Base antimicrobial susceptibility data.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the quality of centres contributing antimicrobial susceptibility data to a centralised database.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve organisms were distributed to 31 regional microbiology laboratories contributing data to a centralised susceptibility database. Participants were asked to determine susceptibilities to certain antibiotics by their routine method and return the data to the Department of Microbiology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, for analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results for the overwhelming majority of organism/antibiotic combinations were in agreement with expected results. Reasons for discrepancies included the non-bimodal distribution of susceptibilities, the use of different content discs, and, more importantly, minimum inhibitory concentrations falling close to breakpoint values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is inevitable that any large multicentre database will contain a degree of inaccurate data. This study has highlighted several areas where discrepant results have occurred and has enabled Glaxo Laboratories to approach individual laboratories to address this problem. This study emphasises the value and consistency of Microbe Base as the largest database, of its kind, nationally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield.
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Limb
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Winstanley
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Wheat
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D006193:Haemophilus influenzae / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects