The rapid determination
of antimicrobial susceptibility and evidence-based
antimicrobial prescription is necessary to combat widespread antimicrobial
resistance and promote effectively treatment for bacterial infections.
This study developed a rapid phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility
determination method competent for seamless clinical implementation.
A laboratory-friendly Coulter counter-based antimicrobial susceptibility
testing (CAST) was developed and integrated with bacterial incubation,
population growth monitoring, and result analysis to quantitatively
detect differences in bacterial growth between resistant and susceptible
strains following a 2 h exposure to antimicrobial agents. The distinct
proliferation rates of the different strains enabled the rapid determination
of their antimicrobial susceptibility phenotypes. We evaluated the
performance efficacy of CAST for 74 clinically isolatedEnterobacteriaceaesubjected to 15 antimicrobials. The results were consistent with
those obtained via the 24 h broth microdilution method, showing 90.18%
absolute categorical agreement.