Identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of positive blood culture isolates from briefly incubated solid medium cultures.

INTRODUCTION Mass spectrometry Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization Time-of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) helps in the rapid identification of microorganisms causing blood stream infection. Rapid and reliable methods are required to decrease the turnaround time for reporting antimicrobial susceptibility results from blood culture isolates. METHODS An evaluation was performed on the reliability of a method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of positive blood culture isolates from briefly incubated solid medium cultures. RESULTS The agreement between the evaluated and standard methods was 99.3%. The major and minor error rates were 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, and no very major errors were observed. CONCLUSION The inoculation of briefly incubated solid medium cultures into antimicrobial susceptibility testing panels is an easy and reliable technique, and helps to decrease the turnaround time for reporting antimicrobial susceptibility results of positive blood cultures.