Quality assessment of Microbe Base antimicrobial susceptibility data

Area of Science:

• Medical Microbiology
• Clinical Laboratory Science
• Antimicrobial Resistance

Background:

• Centralized databases are crucial for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance.
• Ensuring the accuracy of data contributed by multiple centers is essential for reliable AMR monitoring.
• Variability in laboratory methods can impact susceptibility testing results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the quality of antimicrobial susceptibility data submitted by regional laboratories to a central database.
• To identify potential sources of error and discrepancies in susceptibility testing results.
• To inform improvements in data quality for a national antimicrobial susceptibility database.

Main Methods:

• Twelve reference organisms were distributed to 31 participating microbiology laboratories.
• Laboratories performed routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
• Data on organism-antibiotic combinations were collected and analyzed.

Main Results:

• The majority of organism/antibiotic susceptibility results aligned with expected outcomes.
• Discrepancies were attributed to non-bimodal susceptibility distributions, varied disc contents, and minimum inhibitory concentrations near breakpoint values.
• Specific areas of concern for data accuracy were identified.

Conclusions:

• Large multicenter databases inevitably contain some inaccurate data.
• This study identified key areas of data discrepancy, enabling targeted interventions.
• The findings underscore the value and consistency of the Microbe Base database for national antimicrobial resistance surveillance.