European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) is a scientific committee for defining guidelines to interpret antimicrobial resistance.[1] It was formed in 1997 and is jointly organized by ESCMID, ECDC and other European laboratories.[2]

European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
Company typeNonprofit organization
FoundedMay 25, 1997; 27 years ago (1997-05-25)
HeadquartersEUCAST Development Laboratory,
Central Hospital Växjö
,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Christian Giske (Chairman)
  • John Turnidge (Scientific Secretary)
Websiteeucast.org

EUCAST guidelines are one of the most popular breakpoint guidelines used in antimicrobial susceptibility testing worldwide.[3] The EUCAST guidelines are freely available to all of their users.

Like the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, EUCAST offers guidelines to interpret raw minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), the lowest concentration of a chemical, usually a drug, which prevents visible growth of bacterium. The interpretation to antimicrobial resistance (reported as "R") or antimicrobial susceptibility (reported as "S") differs for all bug-drug combinations which is why guidelines are needed.

References

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  1. ^ Kahlmeter, G.; Brown, D.F.J.; Goldstein, F.W.; MacGowan, A.P.; Mouton, J.W.; Odenholt, I.; Rodloff, A.; Soussy, C-J.; Steinbakk, M.; Soriano, F.; Stetsiouk, O. (2006). "European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) Technical Notes on antimicrobial susceptibility testing". Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 12 (6): 501–503. doi:10.1111/j.1469-0691.2006.01454.x. PMID 16700696.
  2. ^ "EUCAST: EUCAST". eucast.org. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  3. ^ Kassim, Ali (11 April 2016). "Comparison of Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing guidelines for the interpretation of antibiotic susceptibility at a University teaching hospital in Nairobi, Kenya: a cross-sectional study". Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 15: 21. doi:10.1186/s12941-016-0135-3. PMC 4827198. PMID 27068515.