The purpose of this project is to design a product for anaerobic susceptibility testing that has the following features: (1) the ability to determine minimal inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics for anaerobic bacteria, (2) the ability to grow extreme oxygen-sensitive organisms, (3) simplicity, and (4) easily interpretable results.The mortality rate of anaerobic infections can be very high if the infectious agent is not identified and the proper therapy initiated. Before the mid-1970's, identification of the infecting anaerobe was sufficient for proper treatment; however, with increased use of newer antibiotics, the antibiotic resistance of several groups of commonly encountered pathogenic anaerobes has increased. The antibiotic resistances observed are not limited to specific groups of organisms nor are they limited to particular antibiotics. Therefore, susceptibility testing of anaerobic bacteria isolated from clinical material now is necessary and should be performed routinely.The procedure recommended by the National Committee on Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) for testing antibiotic susceptibilities of anaerobic bacteria is extremely cumbersome and also has growth problems with individual strains of oxygensensitive organisms. Similarly, the commercial systems currently available for antimicrobial susceptibilities give inconsistent results and are incapable of supporting the growth of the more oxygen-sensitive and nutritionally fastidious organisms. The results from these systems tend to give lower values or false susceptibilities for certain antibiotics and organisms.During Phase I investigators will design a process by which production and packaging of test antibiotic susceptibility panels will be done under strict anaerobic conditions. Also, various nutritional supplements will be tested to deterimine if their addition to the NCCLS-recommended medium will improve growth of certain nutritionally fastidious anaerobes, especially anaerobic cocci. The completed product will be compared to the NCCLS-recommended procedure.National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases
