Performance of discs, sensititre EUMDROXF microplates and MTS gradient strips for the determination of the susceptibility of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa to cefiderocol.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the performance of commercially available tests to determine the susceptibility of multidrug-resistant (MDR) clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains to cefiderocol. METHODS: A collection of 150 clinical strains of P. aeruginosa resistant to ceftazidime, (MIC, Minimal Inhibitory Concentration, MIC > 8 mg/L) imipenem (MIC> 4 mg/L) and ceftolozane/tazobactam (MIC> 4/4 mg/L), isolated from 2015 to 2022 was selected. Cefiderocol susceptibility was determined in parallel (a) by disc diffusion using Mast, Oxoid and Liofilchem discs deposited on Mueller-Hinton agar batches from Bio-Rad, BioMérieux, Mast, Becton Dickinson, I2A and Oxoid; (b) by MIC gradient test strips (MTS) (Liofilchem); and (c) by EUMDROXF Sensititre microplates. MICs and inhibition zones were compared with the broth microdilution reference method (BMD) MICs. RESULTS: The MIC50 and MIC90 of cefiderocol were 1 mg/L and 8 mg/L by BMD, respectively, including 21.3% (32/150) resistant strains. None of the methods tested fulfilled acceptable criteria (essential agreement [EA] ≥ 90%; bias = ± 30%). Although the Sensititre EUMDROXF microplates overestimated MIC values (categorical agreement [CA] = 86.7% [130/150, 95% CI 80.3-91.2]; EA = 69.3% [104/150, 95% CI 61.6-76.2]; bias = 68.2%), MTS strips underestimated the MIC values for many strains (CA = 86.7%, 130/150, 95% CI 80.3-91.2; EA = 69.3%, 104/150, 95% CI 61.6-76.2; bias = -30.4%), classifying properly only 50% (16/32) of resistant strains. Finally, many cefiderocol-resistant strains were not identified by the disc method, although the CA ranged from 78.0% (117/150, 95% CI 70.7-83.0) to 89.3% (134/150, 95% IC 83.4-93.3) according to Mueller-Hinton agar batches. CONCLUSION: Determination of cefiderocol susceptibility in MDR P. aeruginosa clinical strains by Sensititre EUMDROXF microplates is an alternative to the reference BMD method. However, MIC values ± 1 dilution apart from the breakpoint (2 mg/L) should be controlled by BMD whereas the use of MTS gradient strips is discouraged. Disc diffusion might be useful for screening, unfortunately many cefiderocol-resistant strains are not detected.

Successful retrieval of human papillomavirus DNA after a 4.5 year storage on FTA elute cards.

Efficient primary (vaccination) and secondary (screening) prevention strategies have the potential to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide. In this context, surveillance of HPV infections remains mandatory to assess the efficacy and the impact of screening and vaccination policies. Therefore there is a need to safely store cervical samples to conduct long-term studies in vaccinated and non-vaccinated subjects. Up-dated data on cervical specimen preservation on FTA® cards indicate that HPV DNA can be safely retrieved after 54 months of storage. A concordance of 97 % was achieved between HPV genotypes detected in initial cervical samples and on FTA® cards 4.5 years later. Even if a drop in HPV viral loads was observed in some cases at 4.5 years, using FTA® cards for safe and long-term storage of cervical samples represents an interesting option.