TABLE 2.
Relative and absolute reproducibilities of various endpoints of the NCCLS, Sensititre, and E-test methods among the four observers (interobserver agreement) and among the three replicates (interexperimental agreement) for all Aspergillus spp.
| Drug | Method | Endpointa | % Interobserver agreementb
|
% Interexperimental agreementc
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 h | 48 h | 24 h | 48 h | |||
| Itraconazole | NCCLS | MIC-0 | 96.6 (80.9) | 97.6 (88.1) | 95.2 (77.4) | 97.1 (83.7) |
| MIC-1 | 97.0 (82.6) | 97.5 (75.2) | 95.6 (69.2) | 95.0 (77.4) | ||
| MIC-2 | 86.6 (68.9) | 92.1 (69.2) | 85.6 (65.8) | 92.6 (71.3) | ||
| MIC-3 | 79.6 (62.3) | 77.2 (65.1) | 82.0 (62.6) | 82.1 (67.6) | ||
| MIC-4 | 71.3 (60.6) | 76.5 (63.8) | 73.8 (61.7) | 78.7 (65.8) | ||
| E-test | MIC-I | 76.7 (54.9) | 86.9 (68.1) | 73.2 (55.6) | 80.4 (61.4) | |
| Sensititre | MIC-R | 98.1 (83.8) | 95.5 (83.7) | 83.4 (65.7) | 92.7 (79.9) | |
| MIC-P | 98.9 (84.9) | 91.1 (84.0) | 85.8 (67.8) | 89.0 (80.3) | ||
| MIC-B | 97.7 (88.2) | 93.7 (91.4) | 84.9 (69.2) | 87.9 (83.1) | ||
| Amphotericin B | NCCLS | MIC-0 | 99.3 (88.3) | 100.0 (88.1) | 99.2 (81.6) | 99.7 (78.0) |
| Etest | MIC-I | 81.5 (55.5) | 85.5 (69.1) | 67.1 (51.2) | 76.8 (67.4) | |
| Sensititre | MIC-R | 94.5 (82.6) | 99.2 (86.8) | 90.0 (72.6) | 99.4 (75.3) | |
| MIC-P | 99.9 (84.3) | 99.2 (85.8) | 94.1 (73.9) | 99.4 (75.0) | ||
| MIC-B | 98.6 (87.3) | 99.2 (93.7) | 93.3 (76.9) | 99.7 (82.1) | ||
MIC-0, the lowest drug concentration with an absence of growth; MIC-1, the lowest drug concentration that resulted in slight growth; MIC-2, the lowest drug concentration that resulted in a prominent reduction in growth; MIC-3, the lowest drug concentration with that resulted in a slight reduction in growth; MIC-4: the highest drug concentration that resulted in no reduction of growth compared always with the control growth; MIC-R, the red well with the highest drug concentration; MIC-P, the first purple well with the lowest drug concentration; MIC-B, the blue well with the lowest drug concentration; MIC-I, the intersect of the elliptical inhibition zone with the Etest strip.
The 95% confidence intervals of the average percent interobserver agreement (relative agreement and absolute agreement [in parentheses]) among the three experiments (for each experiment, 125 comparisons [five species × five strains × four observers]) were calculated after angular transformation and ranged from ±0 to ±9.8% (median, 2.7%).
The 95% confidence intervals of the average percent interexperimental agreement (relative agreement and absolute agreement [in parentheses]) among the four observers (for each of observer, 75 comparisons [five species × five strains × three replicates]) were calculated after angular transformation and ranged from ±0.9 to ±8.6% (median, 3.6%).