Culture media for AST

The importance of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

The growing resistance of many pathogenic organisms to antimicrobials is considered one of today’s most serious healthcare issues at the global level. Antimicrobial resistant organisms are responsible for high morbidity and mortality, as well as economic burden. Beyond identifying the infectious organism causing an illness, Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) and resistance detection is needed to predict how pathogens will respond to particular antimicrobials. This enables initiation of the most appropriate therapies as well as adapted measures to control the spread of infection. Additionally, labs are called upon to identify trends in resistance and emerging resistance patterns among clinically relevant organisms. This will help us improve our understanding and ability to fight resistance including through antimicrobial stewardship, infection control policies and prevention measures.

Quality media for a variety of AST testing needs

bioMérieux offers a range of high-quality, standardized media for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The line has been developed in accordance with EUCAST^® (European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing) and CLSI^® (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Inc.) guidelines, ensuring that each medium provides the ideal environment to predict in vitro how the particular organism behaves in vivo. The media enable growth of pathogenic organisms while guaranteeing minimum interference from the constituents of the formula in the antimicrobial susceptibility test results. The line is compatible with disk diffusion testing, or, for greater performance, with bioMérieux’s Etest^® strips.

Mueller Hinton E (MHE) – E for Etest^® & EUCAST^®

Mueller Hinton E agar enables the growth of non-fastidious bacteria (enterobacteria, non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli, staphylococci and enterococci) found in human pathology.

• Compliant with EUCAST^® and CLSI^® guidelines
• Etest^® compatible
• Improved detection of mecC MRSA strains

Mueller Hinton + 5% Horse Blood + 20mg/l β-NAD^* (MHF)

Mueller Hinton + 5% Horse Blood + 20 mg/l β-NAD (MHF) enables the growth of fastidious bacteria (pneumococci, other streptococci, Haemophilus, Moraxella) found in human pathology.

• Developed according to EUCAST^® recommendations
• Compatible wih Etest^®

* β-Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

Mueller Hinton 2 agar + 5% sheep blood (MHS)

Mueller Hinton 2 agar + 5% sheep blood (MHS) is a medium for testing susceptibility of pneumococci and other streptococci to antibiotics and sulfonamides, for strains requiring blood for their growth.

• Low concentration of thymine – thymidine (sulfonamide inhibitors) restricts the growth around the discs, enabling more accurate measurement of the zones of inhibition
• Compliant with CLSI^®
• Compatible with Etest^®

Other media available for AST

• Brucella Blood agar
• Mueller Hinton cloxacillin
• Mueller Hinton Hypersalted
• RPMI
• BHI agar

Boost performance with Etest^®

bioMérieux media for AST is validated for use with Etest^® strips. These cost-effective, easy-to-use reagent strips are well-recognized for their performance in determining on-scale Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of antimicrobials. Etest^® strips offer more precise AST testing than what is typically possible with automated AST systems, such as VITEK^® 2, or with disk diffusion. Thanks to this extended performance, they enable:

• Confirmation of primary AST testing, such as with VITEK^® 2
• Testing of novel agent
• Testing of difficult-to-test organisms
• Detection of low levels of resistance, hetero-resistance
• Detection or confirmation of antimicrobial resistant phenotypes
• Determination of extended-range MICs

A validated Certificate of Compatibility, available in the Technical Library, clearly shows the product compatibility and makes it easy to ensure your accreditation requirements.