ABSTRACT
A laboratory may choose to perform automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing for one or more of the following reasons: To provide test results more rapidly than can be accomplished by manual methods, to reduce the amount of labor required for such tasks, or to improve standardization of test results from day-to-day or between different laboratories. The use of an automated instrument method is currently the only feasible method to routinely provide rapid results. The chapter discusses the instruments which are capable of generating test results following such abbreviated incubation periods, although testing of some species may require longer by certain of the methods. The Autobac®was originally designed to provide rapid, qualitative susceptibility results on the most frequently tested bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, staphylococci, and enter-ococci. A very major error occurred when the instrument result indicated susceptibility and the reference method defined resistance of a microorganism.
