System for validation and interpreting results of antimicrobial susceptibility tests of micro-organisms

A method carried out by a computer analysis system, of validating and interpreting test results of a micro-organism's susceptibility to antimicrobial agents, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a database indexing resistance mechanisms of micro-organism species to antimicrobial agents of different antimicrobial agent families, the antimicrobial agents of each antimicrobial agent family having related biochemical structures and action modes, the database storing, for each resistance mechanism and antimicrobial agent, parameters characterizing a statistic distribution of minimum inhibitory concentrations;
• testing the micro-organism to generate a first test result that approximately identifies one of the micro-organism species to which the micro-organism belongs, and a second test result that measures minimum inhibitory concentrations of the micro-organism for each of the antimicrobial agents of the different antimicrobial agent families that are indexed to the identified species;
• and
• comparing the measured minimum inhibitory concentrations to the parameters characterizing the statistic distribution of minimum inhibitory concentrations for the resistance mechanisms of the identified species and the correspondingly indexed antimicrobial agent stored in the database to generate indicator values, each of the indicator values reflecting the adequacy of the corresponding measured minimum inhibitory concentrations;
• wherein if at least one of the indicator values is at or above a given threshold value, the first and second test results are valid, and if all the indicator values are below the given threshold value, at least one of the first and second test result is invalid.