Minimum inhibitory concentration?????

[Bluesaurus]

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I don't get Minimum inhibitory concentrations. I understand them in theory, but I question what they mean when I see it on culture and sensitivity tests I see in hospital.

I often see either 1,2,4,8 or 16 or >16

I assume that a MIC of 1 is the best on this scale?

 

[VCU07]

I don't get Minimum inhibitory concentrations. I understand them in theory, but I question what they mean when I see it on culture and sensitivity tests I see in hospital.

I often see either 1,2,4,8 or 16 or >16

I assume that a MIC of 1 is the best on this scale?

The lower the number the better. Ideally, you want to pick a abx. that will cover the organism(s) in question without having to worry about sensitivity of, say>16.

 

[Mjs12DO]

Yeah that is the gist of it. The lower the MIC the better. A few things to remember-When you see a MIC of 2 or greater for Vancomycin this means that it is fairly ineffective. At this point you should use daptomycin or linezolid. Also remember that daptomycin has no penetrance in the lungs. Also most labs I see only test for aztreonam, but when you see the MIC of Aztreonam you can place Ceftazidime at one dilution lower MIC compared to Aztreonam. The reason behind this is that ceftazidime also has activity against gram postitive bacteria, while aztreonam only has activity against gram negative bacteria. Ceftazidime is a great drug for above the diaphragm infections, and it is the only 3rd generation cephalosporin with pseudomonas coverage. Hope this helps some.