Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2001) 48, 0III-0iii
© 2001 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
Supplement |
Preface
Abstract
It is over 12 years since the BSAC Working Party on Susceptibility (then Sensitivity) Testing first reported its recommendations. The primary aim of the Working Party has not changed, namely to guide the hospital laboratory in ‘assisting the clinician in his/her choice of an appropriate . . . antibiotic’. In addition, the accurate surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is increasing in importance. This latest publication moves forward from the initial discussion of breakpoints in 1988, through minimum inhibitory concentration methodology in 1991 to the current standardized disc technique (and related issues such as automation, ß-lactamase detection and interpretative reading). We realize that this has involved a mammoth amount of work by a few committed individuals, who, in turn, are very grateful to the BSAC for underwriting this effort with the necessary financial resources. Equally, it has involved a wider group of interested laboratories that field-tested the method.
Some of the information in this supplement has been posted on the BSAC website (http://www.bsac.org.uk). It will be updated regularly. We advise all interested, both laboratory workers and pharmaceutical companies, to look at the website frequently.
In bringing together this Supplement we thank Sheila Dutta Chowdhury for secretarial input and most significantly all the members of the Working Party, past and present, for their hard work.
Where will we be in another 12 years? Undoubtedly automation will play a major role in the clinical laboratory and most probably detection of the genetic basis of resistance in individual isolates will be available. Until then, we commend this document to the membership of the BSAC and to a wider audience.
Notes