2013 iMedPub Journals THE INTERNATIONAL ARABIC JOURNAL Vol. 3 No. 3:5 Our Site: http://www.imedpub.com/ OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS doi: 10.3823/737 Evaluation of Rula Al-Dawodi1,3, Rawan Liddawi1,3, Raed Ghneim1,3, Randa Kattan1,3, Issa Siryani1,3, Afaf Abu-Diab1, Riyad Meropenem, Ghneim1, Madeleine Zoughbi1,3, Abed-El-Razeq Issa1,3, Randa Al Qass1,3, Sultan Turkuman1, Hiyam Marzouqa1, and Imipenem and Musa Hindiyeh1,2,3* Ertapenem 1 Caritas Baby Hospital, 3 Palestinian Forum for Medical * Correspondence: Bethlehem, Palestine; Research (PFMR), Ramallah, Impregnated 2 Bethlehem University, Palestine Bethlehem, Palestine;
[email protected] MacConkey * Musa Y Hindiyeh, Caritas Baby Hospital Bethlehem Agar Plates for Palestine. the Detection of Carbapenem Abstract Resistant Background: Rapid detection of carbapenem resistant bacteria, in particular, members of the Enterobacteriaceae family (CRE), is of utmost importance for the Enterobacteriaceae management of infected or colonized patients. Methods: Three carbapenems; meropenem, imipenem and ertapenem, with two different concentrations (0.5 mg/ml and 1.0 mg/ml), were impregnated in Mac- Conkey agar. The carbapenem impregnated MacConkey agar plates; ([Mac-Mem], [Mac-Imp] and [Mac-Ert]), were then evaluated for the detection of carbapenem resistant Gram-negative bacteria in particular the blaKPC producing Enterobacteria- ceae. The Limit of Detection (LOD) of the plates was determined in triplicate after serial logarithmic dilution of the bacterial strains in saline. This was followed by inoculating the plates and counting the colonies that grew after 24 hours of incu- bation. The specificity and the shelf-life of the plates were determined by testing the plates with six Extended Spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) producing members of the Enterobacteriaceae family and one genus with the blaAmpC phenotype.