Epsilometer test

The Epsilometer test (usually abbreviated Etest) is a laboratory test used by microbiologists to determine whether or not a specific strain of bacterium or fungus is susceptible to the action of a specific antibiotic. This is most commonly used in the setting of medicine, where a particular organism has been found to infect a patient, and the doctor treating the patient is seeking guidance on what antibiotic is suitable.

History

The principle of the epsilometer test was first described in 1988 and was introduced commercially in 1991 by AB Biodisk.

Principle

The Etest is basically an agar diffusion method.

The Etest utilises a rectangular strip that has been impregnated with the drug to be studied. A lawn of bacteria is inoculated onto the surface an agar plate and the Etest strip is laid on top; the drug diffuses out into the agar, producing an exponential gradient of the drug to be tested. There is an exponential scale printed on the strip. After 24 hours of incubation, an elliptical zone of inhibition is produced and the point at which the ellipse meets the strip gives a reading for the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the drug.

Validation

The test has been validated for many organisms against the broth/agar dilution method and shown to have excellent correlation. This is a partial list of organisms and antibiotics for which the test has been validated.

*"Pseudomonas aeruginosa:" amikacin, ceftazidime, gentamicin, piperacillin, ticarcillin, tobramycin, [cite journal|author=Joyce LF, Downes J, Stockman K, Andrew JH|title=Comparison of five methods, including the PDM Epsilometer test (E test), for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa|year=1992|volume=30|issue=10|pages=2709–2713 |url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=270503|pmid=1400972|unused_data=|J Clin Microbiol|]

References

External links

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