Evaluation of the Sensititre system for quantitative antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing: a collaborative study

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Clinical Diagnostics
• Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

Background:

• Accurate determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) is crucial for effective antimicrobial therapy.
• Standardized microdilution methods are widely used but can be labor-intensive.
• Novel methods like Sensititre aim to improve efficiency and accuracy in MIC determination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of Sensititre antimicrobial microdilution panels.
• To compare Sensititre MICs with those obtained by a reference microdilution method.
• To assess the reproducibility of the Sensititre method within and between laboratories.

Main Methods:

• A three-center collaborative study was conducted.
• 27 bacterial isolates were tested using Sensititre panels and a reference microdilution method.
• Intralaboratory and interlaboratory reproducibility of both methods was assessed.

Main Results:

• Sensititre MICs were equivalent to the reference method within +/- 1 dilution in 87.6% of tests.
• Intralaboratory reproducibility was high for both methods (80.4% for Sensititre, 82.4% for reference).
• Sensititre showed superior interlaboratory reproducibility, with nearly 10% greater agreement in triplicate results.

Conclusions:

• The Sensititre antimicrobial microdilution test provides results essentially equivalent to standardized microdilution methods.
• Sensititre offers a reliable and reproducible alternative for determining bacterial minimum inhibitory concentrations.
• The study supports the use of Sensititre panels in clinical laboratories for antimicrobial susceptibility testing.