Evaluation of the MicroScan antimicrobial susceptibility system with the autoSCAN-4 automated reader

The American MicroScan (American MicroScan, Mahwah, N.J.) identification and antimicrobial susceptibility system consists in part of an automated reading system (autoSCAN-4) with data management capabilities. We evaluated the system with 404 gram-negative and 170 gram-positive facultative anaerobic and aerobic bacteria. We compared MicroScan results read automatically and visually with each other and with the results obtained by the reference method (read visually). The overall agreement within +/- 1 log2 dilution was 94.3% when the MicroScan system (read automatically) was compared with the reference method (read visually), 96.4% when MicroScan panels (read visually) were compared with reference panels, and 97.4% when the autoSCAN-4 automated reading was compared with the visual reading of the MicroScan panels. Total discrepancies (susceptibility interpretation category changes) for the MicroScan system compared with the reference method were 7%, with 6.2% considered a minor discrepancy. The autoSCAN-4 and the complete MicroScan system yielded accurate results compared with the reference method.