Cefotiam susceptibility testing criteria.

Interpretive zone size breakpoints for diffusion tests with 30-micrograms cefotiam disks are diameters of greater than or equal to 18 mm for susceptible and less than or equal to 14 mm for resistant strains. The standard control strains Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 should both give zones 27 to 33 mm in diameter. Tests with 579 clinical isolates yielded an unacceptably high rate of very major discrepancies between disk tests and microdilution tests; such discrepancies were especially common among Enterobacter spp. Additional studies support the concept that standard microdilution tests and standard disk diffusion tests may fail to detect a potential for resistance among some microorganisms.