I heard that there is a new NCCLS document that describes preparing a cumulative antibiogram report. Can you please tell me about this?

Answer:

NCCLS published a new guideline in 2000, M39-P, entitled "Analysis and Presentation of Cumulative Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test Data". The goal of M39-P is to provide suggestions to assist in the preparation of cumulative antimicrobial susceptibility reports that will prove useful to clinicians in the selection of the most appropriate agents for empiric antimicrobial therapy. Specific suggestions in M39 include 1) presenting the report annually; 2) including species with at least 10 isolates; 3) eliminating repeat isolates by including in the analysis only 1 isolate/patient/year (regardless of body site or susceptibility profile); 4) excluding surveillance isolates; 5) presenting % susceptible (not % resistant); 6) presenting % susceptible and % intermediate for Streptococcus pneumoniae and viridans streptococci. M-39P is open for comment until July 2001. For those of you with an interest in this, we strongly encourage you to obtain M39 from NCCLS and provide us with any comments you may have.