Antibiotics are used regularly for treating bacterial infections, but there is currently no quick and simple test to determine the most effective type or dose of antibiotic for a specific patient infection. As a result, it’s estimated that around 30% of all antibiotic prescriptions are not the optimum choice. This can lead to the formation of drug-resistant bacteria, delayed recovery, and in some cases death from an infection.
Tests for the most appropriate antibiotic choice are performed for life-threatening patient infections. However, microbes have to be grown on agar plates from a very small patient sample which delays results for a few days. Hiroaki Suzuki et al have designed a microfluidic device that is able to determine the most effective antibiotic treatment in just 12 hours.
To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.
A microfluidic microbial culture device for rapid determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics
Rika Takagi , Junji Fukuda , Keiji Nagata , Yutaka Yawata , Nobuhiko Nomura and Hiroaki Suzuki
Analyst, 2013,138, 1000-1003
DOI: 10.1039/C2AN36323B
