Acceleration of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Positive Blood Cultures by Inoculation of Vitek 2 Cards with Briefly Incubated Solid Medium Cultures

Briefly incubated agar cultures from positive blood cultures were used for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) by Vitek 2. The cultivation time until inoculation was 3.8 h for Gram-positive cocci and 2.4 h for Gram-negative rods. The error rates were low, providing early and reliable AST without additional time or cost expenditure.