This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Minimum inhibitory concentration is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), in microbiology, is the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial that will inhibit the visible growth of a microorganism after overnight incubation. Minimum inhibitory concentrations are important in diagnostic laboratories to confirm resistance of microorganisms to an antimicrobial agent and also to monitor the activity of new antimicrobial agents.[1] An MIC is generally regarded as the most basic laboratory measurement of the activity of an antimicrobial agent against an organism.[2]
MICs can be determined by agar or broth dilution methods usually following the guidelines of a reference body such as the CLSI, BSAC or EUCAST. There are several commercial methods available, including the well established Etest strips and the recently launched Oxoid MICEvaluator method.
The Etest system comprises a predefined and continuous concentration gradient of different antimicrobial agents, which when applied to inoculated agar plates and incubated, create ellipses of microbial inhibition [1]. The MIC is determined where the ellipse of inhibition intersects the strip, and is easily read off the MIC reading scale on the strip. [2]
![[1]](http://gold.aecom.yu.edu/id/micro/mic_etest-72.jpg){kind=link}
![[2]](http://gold.aecom.yu.edu/id/micro/mic_etest_menisc-400.jpg){kind=link}
Clinically, the minimum inhibitory concentrations are used not only to determine the amount of antibiotic that the patient will receive but also the type of antibiotic used, which in turn lowers the opportunity for microbial resistance to specific antimicrobial agents.
References
- ^ Andrews, J. M. Determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 48 (Suppl. 1):5-16, (2001). PMID 11420333.
- ^ Turnidge JD, Ferraro MJ, Jorgensen JH (2003) Susceptibility Test Methods: General Considerations. In PR Murray, EJ Baron, JH Jorgensen, MA Pfaller, RH Yolken. Manual of Clinical Microbiology. 8th Ed. Washington. American Society of Clinical Microbiology. p 1103 ISBN 1-55581-255-4
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 25 April 2008, at 20:59.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Minimum inhibitory concentration".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.