Direct-from-specimen microbial growth inhibition spectrums under antibiotic exposure and comparison to conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

Increasing global travel and changes in the environment may escalate the frequency of contact with a natural host carrying an infection and, therefore, increase our chances of encountering microorganisms previously unknown to humans. During an emergency, the etiology of infection may be unknown at the time of patient treatment. The existing local or global Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs may not be fully prepared for emerging/re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks, especially if they are caused by an unknown organism, engineered bioterrorist attack, or rapidly evolving superbug.

Corrigendum to "Categorizing microbial growth inhibition through quantification of 16S rRNA growth marker with stripwells covering a spectrum of antimicrobial conditions" [MethodsX 8 (2021) 101453].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.mex.

Categorizing microbial growth inhibition through quantification of 16S rRNA growth marker with stripwells covering a spectrum of antimicrobial conditions.

Culture-based microdilution and disk diffusion tests are two commonly used reference methods for determining the susceptibility of causative bacteria to antibiotics. However, these methods are slow and laborious. Automated antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) instruments are extensively used in clinical microbiology labs, replacing manual methods to perform gold standard microdilution or disk diffusion methods.

Phenotypic microbial response to antimicrobial exposure conditions with a molecular analysis quantification of species-specific 16S rRNA content.

The emergence and rapid spread of resistant bacteria has become a serious public health concern worldwide. Delayed antimicrobial therapy significantly increases mortality in high-risk infections with a particularly strong association with septic shock. Therefore, antimicrobial agents are often injudiciously used without any evidence-based microbiological confirmation.

Method for concentrating viable microorganisms for microbial load determination and eliminating uncertainty from matrix effects from urine and whole blood.

The ability to assess and eliminate the matrix effect in bioanalytical methods is critical for reproducibility, but sample preparation procedures necessary to address the matrix effect for microbiological methods could be significantly different if viable pathogens are required for downstream microbiological response analysis. A pure bacterial culture remains essential for virulence, antibiotic susceptibility, and phenotypic response studies in order to facilitate the understanding and treatment of caused diseases. Bacterial culture involves the collection, inoculation, incubation, growth, and detection of viable organisms while avoiding contamination throughout the entire process.

Transportation protocols for accurate assessment of microbial burden classification using molecular methods.

Point-of-care testing is cost-effective, rapid, and could assist in avoiding hospital visits during a pandemic. However, they present some significant risks that current technologies cannot fully address. Skin flora contamination and insufficient specimen volume are two major limitations preventing self-collection microbiological testing outside of hospital settings.

Feasibility and potential significance of rapid in vitro qualitative phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing of gram-negative bacilli with the ProMax system.

The emergence and evolution of antibiotic resistance has been accelerated due to the widespread use of antibiotics and a lack of timely diagnostic tests that guide therapeutic treatment with adequate sensitivity, specificity, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) accuracy. Automated AST instruments are extensively used in clinical microbiology labs and provide a streamlined workflow, simplifying susceptibility testing for pathogenic bacteria isolated from clinical samples. Although currently used commercial systems such as the Vitek2 and BD Phoenix can deliver results in substantially less time than conventional methods, their dependence on traditional AST inoculum concentrations and optical detection limit their speed somewhat.