Table 4.

Phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility test methods commonly used in laboratories.

Name of the AST	Nature of the AST	Media used	Time required (h)	Antibiotics that can be tested	Reference
Disk diffusion method	Phenotypic, qualitative	MHA	18-24	All antibiotics except colistin	[12,46]
Broth dilution method	Phenotypic, manual and quantitative	MHB	24	All antibiotics	[12,45,46]
Agar dilution method	Phenotypic, manual and quantitative	MHA	24	All antibiotics except colistin and sulfa drugs	[45]
Etest®	Phenotypic, manual and quantitative	MHA	24	All antibiotics	[46]
Sensitire™	Phenotypic, automated and quantitative	Test panels	18-24	All antibiotics	[46]
Vitek 2®	Phenotypic, automated and quantitative	AST cards	4-10	All antibiotics	[46]
BD Phoenix™	Phenotypic, automated and quantitative	Micro-well panels	6-16	All antibiotics	[46]
MicroScan®	Phenotypic, automated and quantitative	Panel modules	4.5-7	All antibiotics	[46]

MHA=Mueller-Hinton Agar, MHB=Mueller-Hinton Broth, AST=Aspartate aminotransferase