title: Unreliability of disc diffusion test for screening for reduced penicillin susceptibility in Neisseria meningitidis.
abstract: The 2-U penicillin and microgram oxacillin discs proposed for screening meningococci for susceptibility to penicillin were evaluated by using MICs measured by the E test. The discs yielded unacceptably high frequencies of misclassification of susceptibility category and should be abandoned in favor of MIC estimations. An agreed breakpoint for reduced penicillin susceptibility in meningococci is needed for the E test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel. block@md2.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Block
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010068:Oxacillin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010406:Penicillins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins; D010068:Oxacillin