Performance of the Disc Diffusion Method, MTS Gradient Tests and Two Commercially Available Microdilution Tests for the Determination of Cefiderocol Susceptibility in Acinetobacter spp.

Cefiderocol is a siderophore-conjugated cephalosporin with potent activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens including Acinetobacter baumannii. The aim of this study was to evaluate cefiderocol testing methods on a relevant collection of 97 Acinetobacter spp. isolates. Commercialized broth microdilution methods (ComASP(®), Liofilchem and UMIC(®), Bruker), MIC test strips (Liofilchem) and disc diffusion using discs of three different brands (Mast Diagnostic, Liofilchem and Oxoid—Thermo Fisher Scientific) were compared with the broth microdilution reference method. None of the methods tested fulfilled acceptable criteria (essential agreement [EA] ≥ 90%; bias = ±30%) but both BMD methods achieved acceptable categorical agreement rates (CA = 95.9% [93/97, 95% CI 89.9–98.4] and CA = 93.8% [91/97, 95% CI 87.2–97.1] for ComASP(®) and UMIC(®), respectively) and bias < 30% (−7.2% and −25.2% for ComASP(®) and UMIC(®), respectively). The use of MIC gradient testing is strongly discouraged due to misclassification of 55% (n = 23/42) of resistant strains. Finally, the disc diffusion method could be used to rapidly screen for susceptible strains by setting a critical diameter of 22 mm.