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Evaluation of the Merlin, Micronaut System for Automated Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia Species Isolated from Cystic Fibrosis Patients

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Abstract

Since accurate antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bacterial cystic fibrosis isolates is known to be problematic and an optimal in vitro testing method has not yet been evaluated, the study presented here was conducted to compare the performance of the reference agar dilution method and broth microdilution with a commercially available automated susceptibility test system (Merlin; Micronaut, Germany). In this pilot study, the susceptibility of 70 clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia-like organisms to nine antimicrobial agents was tested using these methods. Susceptibility results generated by broth microdilution (both automated and according to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards recommendations) were demonstrated to be of good reproducibility, and they compared favourably to the time- and material-consuming standard agar dilution reference method, especially after a prolonged incubation time (48 h).

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Hinte and S. Burmester for perfect technical assistance and are especially grateful to D. Bitter-Suermann for helpful discussions and his strong and lasting encouraging support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    S. Häussler, S. Ziesing, G. Rademacher & H. Weißbrodt

  2. Institut für Biometrie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    L. Hoy

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  1. S. Häussler
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  2. S. Ziesing
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  3. G. Rademacher
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  4. L. Hoy
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  5. H. Weißbrodt
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Correspondence to S. Häussler.

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Häussler, S., Ziesing, S., Rademacher, G. et al. Evaluation of the Merlin, Micronaut System for Automated Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia Species Isolated from Cystic Fibrosis Patients. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 22, 496–500 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-003-0974-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-003-0974-7

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