ETEST®

ETEST® strips – the original gradient MIC strips – are considered a gold standard by many. It lives up to its reputation for reliably determining the on-scale Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of antibiotics, antifungal agents and anti-mycobacterial agents. ETEST® is a predefined, stable gradient of 15 antimicrobial concentrations on a plastic strip.  It is a simple, cost-effective tool that offers results when you need more precision than what automated or Kirby-Bauer antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) tests provide. ETEST® has an extensive range of over 100 antimicrobial references available in the following categories:  Antibiotics, Antifungals, Antimycobacterials, and Antimicrobial Resistance Detection (ARD).
 

Trusted leader

The first gradient MIC strip of its kind, ETEST® continues to impress. Its well documented performance has solidified its position as the trusted leader in the gradient MIC strip market. In fact, ETEST® is the gradient MIC strip gold standard:

• >4,000 scientific references from 50 countries
• covering >2.9 million strains
• representing more than 20 million data points
   

Versatile - The method of choice to supplement your primary AST system

Most clinical laboratories use commercially available automated AST systems, such as bioMérieux’s VITEK®, or disk diffusion as a primary means of AST.  This is often adequate since most primary AST systems cover about 90% of AST needs. ETEST® is the method of choice to supplement the remaining ~10% of testing. It’s easy and economical to implement, and the strips’ stable antimicrobial concentration gradient carries an extended shelf-life of up to 5 years so you can keep rarely requested drugs on hand for rapid testing. Here’s how ETEST® fills the gaps beyond the breadth of primary AST usage:

ast-testing_-solution.jpg Click to enlarge

• Test novel agents
• Test difficult organisms that can’t be tested by primary AST methods (e.g. fastidious, anaerobic, primary AST limitations, etc.)
• Detect low levels of resistance, hetero-resistance
• Detect or confirm antimicrobial resistant phenotypes such as ESBL, MBL*, AmpC** or GISA/hGISA**
• Determine extended-range MICs (covering a broad range beyond the breakpoints) to guide and refine treatment of critically ill patients (e.g. multidrug resistant infections). 

*ETEST MBL IP/IPI and MBL MP/MPI are Research Use Only (RUO) products in USA
** ETEST AmpC, KPC and GRD are Research Use Only (RUO) products 
 

Extended-range MICs spanning 15 two-fold dilutions

ETEST® provides full-range MICs spanning 15 two-fold dilutions for concentrations that are ideal for refining patient treatment in instances where routine AST methods are limited in one of the following ways:

• Provides S, I or R category results only
• MIC results are off-scale (i.e. “<” or “>” results) and do not provide sufficient data for pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) targeted dosing considerations 

Easy-to-use MIC technique

It’s easy to extend your AST capabilities.

1. Just apply the strip to an inoculated agar plate either manually or using the optional ETEST® instruments or accessories (e.g. Retro, Simplex, Nema, or MiniGrip It) and incubate.
2. After incubation, an ellipse will appear that intersects the MIC reading scale (in µg/ml) where the concentration of the antibiotic tested inhibits microorganism growth.
3. This value corresponds to the MIC that can be used to help chose optimum patient treatment.

etest-mic-technique-b.jpg