Comparison of killing activity of caspofungin against Candida parapsilosis, Candida orthopsilosis and Candida metapsilosis.

methods. In the other instance, a BLPAR strain was designated ampicillin-susceptible by Etest (MIC 1⁄4 1 mg/L), ampicillinintermediate by M.I.C.E. (MIC 1⁄4 2 mg/L) and ampicillin-resistant by BMD (MIC 1⁄4 16 mg/L). As stated earlier, the low MICs when gradient methods were used were because of a faint growth within the inhibition zone that was difficult to detect at 24 h. In contrast to the findings of Billal et al., all of the b-lactam MIC results for BLNAR and BLPACR strains in this study using either Etest or M.I.C.E. were within +2 doubling dilutions of the BMD method, and the gradient methods produced results comparable to each other and to the BMD method. Despite this, given the findings of both Billal et al. and Kim et al., it would be prudent for any unexpectedly high b-lactam MICs determined by the gradient methods to be repeated by the reference CLSI BMD method.