Okay, y’all! Today I’m switching things up a little!
Most of my random thoughts are about everyday life, work, travel, or whatever happens to be running through my head. But this time, I’m bringing a little Clinical Microbiology into the mix! 😂
For those who don’t know, I’ve been working in Clinical Microbiology for over 20 years. And one thing I’ve learned is that even with all that experience, you can still run across something that makes you stop and think.
So I decided to throw a little question out to my fellow Micro folks across social media and see what everybody thinks!
Here’s the Micro challenge! 🔬
We’ve got an ESBL-producing E. coli being tested against an antibiotic called Amikacin using an Etest strip.
The previous MIC was 4 (Susceptible).
Now, let’s say the laboratory computer system (LIS) only allows results to be entered as:
≤1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, etc.
Looking at the picture, what MIC would YOU report? And WHY? 👀
P.S. Ignore the little scoop in the agar! 😂
For my non-lab folks, here’s the simple version!
We’re testing how well an antibiotic works against bacteria.
That little strip contains different concentrations of the antibiotic. The clear area around it shows where the bacteria couldn’t grow.
The challenge is figuring out exactly where that clear area meets the strip and what number should be reported.
Sounds simple enough, right? Wellllll… 😂
That’s what makes this interesting!
Now I’m curious! 🤔
I want to hear from everybody who’s worked in Clinical Microbiology — whether you’ve been doing this for two years or thirty!
Would you report the same number? Does your experience make a difference? What about the procedures you’ve followed at different labs?
I’m not looking to start an argument or prove anybody wrong. I just want to see how different Micro minds approach the same result.
And for my non-Micro readers, welcome to a little piece of my world! 😂
Drop your thoughts in the comments!
Maybe I’ll come back with a follow-up post after seeing what everybody says.
Until next time… just another random thought from Nellybell! 🧫🔬😂
You are speaking Greek to me, but I love it. I love it when Black people can educate me about something I don’t know.🤗
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LOL…ya know I love what I do rikyrah…and I’m always happy to talk to death about it.
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My undergrad (decades ago!) was in molecular biology , so I had some exposure to what you present, Given the choices, I’d input an 8, even though the tip of the attenuation seems to almost reach 4. I’m presuming not all diffusion is normal to the strip, so the signal at the tip is spurious.
BTW, as another brother in science, REPRESENT!
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Yes! You are correct.
So the line is between 4/6 and when reading Etest you are supposed to read above the through line. in this case that would be 6, but the manufacturer for this etest recommend resulting the Etest measurements at even number levels at multiple of 2 once it’s above that 1 ug/mL. So yep… in this case, it should be resulted as 8=Intermediate. 4 would be susceptible, but because of the Intermediate result you would maybe try another drug!
Micro is truly my passion
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