Antibiotic antibiotic therapy. The antibiotic treatment may select for bacterial strains with physiologically or genetically enhanced capacity to survive high doses of antibiotics. Under certain conditions, it may result in preferential growth of resistant bacteria, while growth of susceptible bacteria is inhibited by the drug. For example, antibacterial selection for strains having previously acquired antibacterial-resistance genes was demonstrated in 1943 by the Luria–Delbrück experiment. Antibiotics such as penicillin and erythromycin, which used to have a high efficacy against many bacterial species and strains, have become less effective, due to the increased resistance of many bacterial strains. Resistance may take the form
Antibiotic sensitivity antibiotic sensitivity testing offered as one combined service. This is because the clinician needs to know which organism is causing the infection, and which drugs will specifically work against this strain. Jump up ^ http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/bugdrug/antibiotic_manual/bk.html Jump up ^ http://www.slideshare.net/doctorrao/antibiotic-sensitivity-testing-presentation Jump up ^ http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/11/1749.full Jump up ^ http://www.microrao.com/micronotes/antibiotic.pdf Antibiotic sensitivity Antibiotic sensitivity or antibiotic susceptibility is the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics. Because susceptibility can vary even within a species (with some strains being more resistant than others), antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) is usually carried out to determine which antibiotic will be most successful in treating a bacterial infection in vivo.