Team:Sheffield/Human Practices
BrightBiotics as a Diagnostic Tool
The Global Antimicrobial Resistance Issue
When choosing an issue to tackle with our diagnostic hardware, we decided to focus on the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR infections are thought to claim as many as 700,000 lives per year, a figure that is expected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if current trends continue (Figure 1) (1). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has therefore described AMR as one of the major concerns of modern healthcare (2), and it is critical that we take action now.
The use of antibiotics is the leading cause of antimicrobial resistance around the world, and in 50% of cases, antibiotic treatment is either not needed or not optimally effective for the infection (3). Doses of antibiotic that are not lethal to bacteria leads to the development of antibiotic resistance by supporting genetic change and acting as a selection pressure (4) (Figure 2). Therefore, one way clinicians can combat AMR is to conduct antimicrobial susceptibility tests (ASTs), to identify any drug resistance in pathogens and ensure effective drugs are chosen for treatments (5).
Advice from Microbiologist Consultants
To gain a better understanding of what ASTs are most commonly used in the clinic, we spoke to microbiologist consultants in Poland and Cyprus. They informed us of the Vitek 2 System, that is commonly used for ASTs.
Vitek2 is a highly automated system, in which a bacterial suspension, grown from a patient sample, is distributed into compact cards containing antibiotics (figure 3). A sensitive optical density system then measures changes in bacterial growth in the presence of the antibiotics in the cards. If there is no bacterial growth, then the organism is sensitive to the drug and it would therefore be an appropriate treatment option.
medicine
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teaching
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