Towards better antimicrobial susceptibility testing: impact of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Susceptibility testing of bacteria is one of the most important tests performed in a clinical microbiology laboratory. Improvements in laboratory techniques, especially the move towards standardized susceptibility testing, has provided better consistency and accuracy of testing. When used in conjunction with the most recently developed interpretative criteria, the result is better prediction of the outcome of antimicrobial therapy for infected patients. Throughout the last four decades this Journal has published numerous articles evidencing improvements and new techniques, a valuable source of information for microbiology laboratories.