Clinical evaluation of the minitek differential system for identification of Enterobacteriaceae

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Abstract
Stock organisms (41) and 581 fresh clinical isolates were used in comparing the Minitek system to conventional tubed media to determine if this system is feasible and accurate for a high-volume clinical microbiology laboratory. Reproducibility of disks, the effect of variation in inoculum size, the effect of the age of culture, and the effect of predispensing disks were also tested. A total of 5947 disks were compared with tube reactions; 95.9% agreed on the initial reading. After repeating questionable tube and disk reactions, this agreement rose to 98.2%. Using the disk reactions and the identification schema currently in use with tubed media, 94.9% of the Minitek final identifications agreed with those of tubed media; 1.5% gave differing identifications and 3.6% were inconclusive. This system is accurate, inexpensive, flexible and convenient.