Available laboratory tests to guide antimicrobial therapy

ABSTRACT

Physicians are encountering more difficulties in treating and managing patients with infectious diseases due to the continued emergence of single and multi-drug resistant organisms. This emphasizes the need of laboratory tests that are of help in predicting or monitoring response to therapy.Several conventional, special, automated and molecular antimicrobial susceptibility tests are available including the disk diffusion test, determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration, the E test, serum bactericidal titers, and determination of antimicrobial levels in blood. This article addresses these and other antimicrobial tests to update and enlighten the physicians in selecting the most relevant test[s] that will help guiding the therapy of infections caused by different bacterial etiologic agents