Susceptibility testing of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus with the Sceptor microdilution system

The antimicrobial susceptibilities of Staphylococcus aureus isolates were concurrently determined by the Sceptor system (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md.) and by the standard disk diffusion method. For the methicillin-resistant isolates, there was greater than 98% agreement between the two test results with penicillin G, erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, gentamicin, and tobramycin. Major disagreements (susceptible by one method and resistant by the other) were 7% for methicillin, 13.5% for cephalothin, 3.5% for cefamandole, and 27% for amikacin. The major discrepancies for methicillin were eliminated by supplementing the inoculum broth with salt. For methicillin-susceptible isolates, agreement between the two methods was 96 to 100% for all antibiotics except amikacin.