Antibiotics Flashcards
Treatment
Antimicrobial agents are administered to cure existing or suspected infection
Antibiotic
- Substance used to prevent or treat infection caused by bacteria and other pathogenic microorganisms.
- Selectively inhibits a vital metabolic process of pathogens such as cell wall, DNA or protein synthesis.
- To be clinically useful, the compound needs to reach the site of infection at a sufficient concentration for an adequate length of time.
Prophylaxis
Antimicrobial agents are administered to prevent infection
Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)
Minimum concentration of antibiotic required to INHIBIT the visible growth of the test organism
Minimum bactericidal concentration
Minimum concentration of antibiotic required to KILL the test organism
(allows less than 0.1% of the original inoculum to survive)
Zone of Inhibition
Zone related to disk diffusion testing; a clear area surrounding an antimicrobial disk following overnight incubation; results from diffusion of the antimicrobial molecules into the agar and inhibition of growth of the test bacterium.
Bactericidal
Antimicrobial that kills a microorganism.
Or amount of antimicrobial agent required to kill.
Read any amount of growth in a microdilution MIC
For E-Test see picture
Bacteriostatic
Antimicrobial that inhibits bacterial growth but does not kill the bacteria.
Measured as ≥80% reduction in growth of the organism as compared to the control well.
For E-Test see attached picture
Example: Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT), Linezolid
Synergism
Occurs when the antimicrobial activity of a combination of antimicrobial agents is greater than the activity of the individual agents alone.
McFarland turbidity standard when preparing an inoculum for AST
0.5 McFarland standard represents 1.5X10 8 colony forming units (CFU/ml)
Susceptible (Sensitive) = S
An infection caused by the tested microorganism may be appropriately treated with the usually recommended dose of antibiotics.
Intermediate = I
The isolate may be inhibited by attainable concentrations of certain antibiotics (e.g., the beta-lactam antibiotics) if higher dosages can be safely used or if the infection involves a body site which allows the drug to concentrate (e.g., urinary tract).
This category serves as a buffer zone that prevents slight technical artifacts from causing major interpretative discrepancies. (Gray zone)
Resistant = R
Isolate is not inhibited by the concentration of antimicrobial agent normally achievable with the recommended dose, indicating specific resistance mechanisms are likely to be present.
Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI):
- Subcommittee of scientists and physicians
- Their goal is to establish standard conditions for testing methods based on laboratory investigations and assessment of clinical outcomes
- Updated guidelines are published annually for bacteria CLSI M100
What agar plate is used for setting up AST?
Mueller-Hinton
Quantitative AST Method
Broth, Agar dilution, or E-Test
Measures the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) in micrograms per milliliter
Antimicrobial agents are usually tested at log2 (two-fold serial dilutions ex. 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 etc.)
Qualitative AST Method
Agar diffusion (Kirby Bauer)
Categorizes an organism as susceptible (S), intermediate (I) or resistant (R) to a particular antimicrobial agent
Microbroth dilution method (<=0.1mL broth volume)
Quantitative
Indicates concentration of drug necessary to inhibit or kill the microorganisms tested
Doubling dilutions of antibiotic in broth
Turbidity visualization = MIC
50µl or 100 µl is directly dispensed into each of the 96 wells of the microtiter tray containing lyophilized antibacterial agents
The trays are examined for growth using a reflected viewing apparatus. The growth from broth alone is used as a comparison (positive control) .
The MIC is the lowest concentration that inhibits the visual growth of the organism
Advantages of Microbroth Dilution AST
- Reliable standardized method
- Convenient simultaneous testing of several antimicrobial agents against individual organisms
- Wide variety of products are commercially prepared; larger institutions can choose custom panels according to specific formulary needs
- Results of testing may be determined by visual exam or semi automated instrumentation
- It is considered a reference method in North America
Macrobroth dilution
(>=1 ml broth volume) – Very rarely performed in clinical labs.
Agar Dilution MIC
A series of plates containing various concentrations of each antimicrobial agent are prepared.
Test bacteria (0.5 McFarland) are spot-inoculated onto each plate using a multipronged replicating device.
After overnight incubation, the MIC is read as the lowest concentration of antimicrobial agent that inhibits the visible growth of the test bacterium
Currently considered the reference method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of anaerobes and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Vitek 2 (for Automated Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing)
This system facilitates standardized susceptibility testing in a closed environment with validated results and recognition of an organism’s microbial resistance mechanism in 6 to 8 hours for most clinically relevant bacteria.
Inoculum is automatically introduced via a filling tube into a miniaturized plastic 64-well, closed card containing specified concentrations (low, mid and high) of antibiotics.
Cards are incubated in a temperature-controlled incubator
Optical readings are performed every 15 minutes to measure the amount of light transmitted through each well and compared to the growth well without antibiotics.
Algorithmic analysis of the growth kinetics in each well is performed by the system’s software to derive the MIC data
The MIC results are validated with the Advanced Expert System (AES) software.