EVALUATION OF THE E TEST FOR ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING OF PORPHYROMONAS-GINGIVALIS

The antimicrobial susceptibilities of 81 recent clinical Porphyromonas gingivalis isolates and two reference strains were determined by the E test, a new method, and were compared with the minimal inhibitory co ncentrations for these strains obtained by the reference agar dilution method on supplemented Brucella blood agar. The following agreements were obtained: benzylpenicillin 100%, ampicillin 96%, cefaclor 82%, ce furoxime 91%, erythromycin 93%, clindamycin 99%, tetracycline 66%, dox ycycline 89%, metronidazole 77% and ciprofloxacin 77%. Very major disc repancies were observed with ciprofloxacin. This study indicates that the E test is an acceptable method to determine the susceptibility of P gingivalis for most antimicrobials.