Although reliable detection of resistance in vitro is critical to the overall performance of any susceptibility testing method, the recently released National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards M27-A methodology for susceptibility testing of yeasts discriminates poorly between resistant and susceptible isolates of Candida spp. We have previously shown that both substitution of antibiot...

Incidental blood agar-based recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis led us to further investigate this routine medium for primary isolation and culture of M. tuberculosis. Fifteen respiratory tract and eight lymph node Ziehl-Neelsen-positive specimens were inoculated in parallel into tubes containing egg-based medium and 5% sheep blood agar. Colonies appeared sooner on this medium than on the eg...

A procedure was developed to isolate and determine ergot alkaloid production by Acremonium coenophialum, the endophytic fungus of tall fescue. The procedure established that macerated leaf sheath or pith from inRorescence stem placed either in a liquid medium or on a corn meal-malt extract agar medium produced isolated mycelium and characteristic conidia within a 3to 3.5-week period. Once isola...

The efficiency of four culture media was compared for the isolation of Mycobacterium avium complex from 197 procine tissues. In 82 tissues with microscopic granulomas and acid-fast bacilli, a significantly greater number of isolates were obtained on Middlebrook 7H10 medium with sodium pyruvate than on Stonebrink medium, Herrold egg yolk agar medium, or Lowenstein-Jensen medium (P=0.01). In 46 t...

A procedure was developed to isolate and determine ergot alkaloid production by Acremonium coenophialum, the endophytic fungus of tall fescue. The procedure established that macerated leaf sheath or pith from inflorescence stem placed either in a liquid medium or on a corn meal-malt extract agar medium produced isolated mycelium and characteristic conidia within a 3- to 3.5-week period. Once is...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Brilliance ESBL agar (OX; Oxoid, Basingstoke, United Kingdom), a novel chromogenic agar for the selective isolation and the presumptive identification of extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae. A panel of 200 clinical Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae and nonfermenting isolates with defined resistance mechanis...

The methods currently available for the identification of the pathogenic yeast Candida dubliniensis all have disadvantages in that they are time-consuming, expensive, and/or, in some cases, unreliable. In a recent study (P. Staib and J. Morschhäuser, Mycoses 42:521-524; 1999) of 14 C. dubliniensis and 11 C. albicans isolates, it was suggested that the ability of C. dubliniensis to produce rough...

AIMS As part of the UK antimicrobial resistance strategy and action plan, the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) is required to collect antibiotic susceptibility data so that resistance trends and patterns can be monitored. Most laboratories report urine Gram negative isolates, as "coliforms" according to morphological appearance, but without an acceptable identification system the antimic...