[Use of the radiometric method in microbiological diagnosis]

The authors reported the results of a radiometric method (Bactec) on the detection of gentamicin serum levels, bacteriaemia and identification of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The serum gentamicin assay procedure proved to be sensitive, accurate, reliable and correlated well with radioimmunoassay (RIA). Positivity revelation of bacteriaemia, evaluated on simulated blood cultures, was much more sensitive than the Castaneda method. The radiometric method, performed on 14 recent isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, gave perfect identification in all cases.