Table III.
Advantages | Limitations | References | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
MHB with the calculated protein-free concentration of an antibiotic | MHB is a liquid medium used for antibiotic susceptibility studies | No impairment of bacterial growth | Absence of proteins | 9,47,48,53,54 |
Good overall comparability of results (widely used) | Does not account for reversible PB | |||
Does not account for differences of influence of PB for gram-negative/gram-positive bacteria | ||||
MHB with serum | Human serum is admixed to test medium at different concentrations (ranging from 20% to 100% serum) | Mimicry of in vivo conditions (including pH) | Intrinsic antibacterial effect of serum hampers bacterial growth | 7,50,52,55–65 |
PB capacity of 100% serum approximates PB capacity of whole blood | Variety of serum content by different investigators | |||
Relatively high costs and limited availability of human serum | ||||
MHB with albumin | Albumin is admixed to broth (e.g. MHB) at a concentration of 4 g/dL | Absence of intrinsic antibacterial effect | Absence of serum proteins other than albumin | 7,9,47,49,66,67 |
Bacterial growth equal to pure MHB | Limited PB capacity, compared to serum | |||
Relatively high costs of human albumin | ||||
PB capacity dependent on presence of ions like Ca++ |
MHB Müller Hinton Broth