Rapid determination of the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics with Sensititre plates and nitroblue tetrazolium.

A rapid (4 h), reliable and technically simple method for determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics for bacteria using ‘Sensititre’ plates and nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) for early detection of bacterial growth is described. MIC-values obtained with the rapid NBT method for 70 isolates from urine were compared with those obtained with Sensititre plates incubated overnight. The results were within one two-fold dilution in 80–100% of the cases depending on the species. As to the reproducibility of the NBT method, the same degree of agreement was obtained in 98% of the cases when determinations on 7 strains against 9 or 10 antibiotics were repeated on 10 different occasions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]