In the disk diffusion method, which is commonly used in microbiology to test the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics,
a breakpoint (in millimeters) refers to a specific concentration of an antibiotic that is used to categorize the bacterial response
as either susceptible, intermediate, or resistant. Breakpoints help determine which antibiotics are likely to be effective for treating
an infection based on the bacteria's susceptibility (see here).
After measuring the zone of inhibition, the result is compared to the breakpoint values provided by organizations like
the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (breakpoints used in the picture) or the Clinical
and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).
The strain of E.coli in the picture is susceptible to all tested antibiotics.
AMP | Ampicillin | AMC | Amoxicillin/Clavulanate | CXM | Cefuroxime | SXT | Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole |
CIP | Ciprofloxacin | FOS | Fosfomycin | NFE | Nitrofurantoin |
Content generated with the help of OpenAI's language model, ChatGPT./div>