INTRODUCTION The activities involving phlebotomy, a critical task for obtaining diagnostic blood samples, are poorly studied as regards the major sources of errors and the procedures related to laboratory quality control. The aim of this study was to verify the compliance with CLSI documents of clinical laboratories from South America and to assess whether teaching phlebotomists to follow the e...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the activity of the orally bioavailable enfumafungin derivative MK-3118 and comparator antifungal agents tested against a collection of 113 clinical isolates of Candida spp. using CLSI and EUCAST broth microdilution (BMD) methods. METHODS Candida spp. isolates (n=113) were tested by CLSI and EUCAST methods. The collection contained 29 Candida albicans, 29 Candida glabra...

We compared carbapenemase detection among 266 Gram-negative bacilli (161 carbapenemase producers) using the Carba NP tests issued by the CLSI (CNPt-CLSI) and a novel protocol (CNPt-direct) designed for carbapenemase detection direct from bacterial cultures (instead of bacterial extracts required by the CLSI tests). The specificities were comparable (100%), but the CNPt-direct was more sensitive...

Background: In 2010, the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) revised breakpoints for cephalosporins and carbapenems and indicated that extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) testing is no longer necessary for Enterobacteriaceae. We compared the results of the CLSI 2010 and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) MIC breakpoints for Enterobacteriaceae...

We evaluated the impact of revised Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) breakpoints for broad-spectrum cephalosporins (BSCs) on the susceptibilities of 1,742 isolates of Enterobacter species, Serratia marcescens, Citrobacter freundii, and Morganella morganii. The 2011 CLSI criteria for cefotaxime and ceftazidime reduced the rates of susceptibility by 2.9% and 5.9%, respectively. T...

Quality control (QC) ranges for antimicrobial agents against QC strains for both dilution and disk diffusion testing are currently set by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), using data gathered in predefined structured multilaboratory studies, so-called tier 2 studies. The ranges are finally selected by the relevant CLSI subcommittee, based largely on visual inspection and a...

The article brings to light an alarmingly high incidence of MRSA (88.9%). Considering the fact that phenotypic screening methods remain the backbone for detection of MRSA in clinical isolates (Babakir-Mina et al., 2012), the authors fail miserably in performing these tests according to CLSI guidelines. This therefore questions the reliability of the data generated making them highly misleading....

The International vocabulary of metrology - Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM3, 2.26 measurement uncertainty, JCGM 200:2012) defines uncertainty of measurement as a non-negative parameter characterizing the dispersion of the quantity values being attributed to a measurand, based on the information obtained from performing the measurement. Clinical Laboratory Standards Institu...

The area of point-of-care testing (POCT) is rapidly growing and holds great promise in terms of speed, accessibility, patient empowerment and improved dialogue between health care practitioners and patients [1]. Although for many POC tests the added value in clinical decision making has not yet been firmly established [2], a number of studies have recently appeared on the value of POCT measurem...

BACKGROUND Biological covariates such as age and sex can markedly influence biochemical marker reference values, but no comprehensive study has examined such changes across pediatric, adult, and geriatric ages. The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) collected comprehensive nationwide health information and blood samples from children and adults in the household population and, in collaborat...