Drug Susceptibility Testing by Dilution Methods

Serial twofold dilution methods are widely used to assess the bacteriostatic activities of antibiotics. This can be achieved by dilution of considered drugs in agar medium or in culture broth, and inoculation by calibrated inoculums. Although seemingly simple, these methods are greatly influenced by the experimental conditions used and may lead to discrepant results, in particular with untrained investigators. The present step-by-step protocol has been validated for Pseudomonas species, including P. aeruginosa. Introduction of appropriate control strains is crucial to ascertain minimal inhibitory concentration values and compare the results of independent experiments.