Evaluation of a liquid-phase colorimetric method for rapid antibacterial susceptibility testing

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Early determination of antibacterial susceptibility increases the success of therapy, decreases unnecessary use of antibacterial agents and side-effects, and lowers the overall healthcare cost. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A rapid colorimetric method for antibacterial susceptibility testing named Qui-Sensitest (Inovative Biotechnology Organization, Istanbul, Turkey) was evaluated in this study. RESULTS: Qui-Sensitest proved to be a reliable rapid test for determining antibacterial susceptibility having an overall agreement of 97.6% with Kirby Bauer disk diffusion test results for enteric bacteria with 0.4% of major discrepancies and 2.0% of minor discrepancy. CONCLUSION: Since the test makes the results available in 3.5-6 hours, it can provide the means for choosing the right treatment regimen the same day the infectious agent is isolated.