Patent ID: 11891648
Assignee: BACTEROMIC SP. Z O.O.
Field: Biotechnology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 8:
9. A rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing system for performing a phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) using broth dilution, the system comprising:
a) an incubation assembly adapted to house at least one carrier having one or more compartments for receiving a sample of a microorganism inoculum diluted in a growth medium, wherein the or at least part of the compartments comprise respectively a single antimicrobial agent or a combination of antimicrobial agents, so that each inoculated compartment houses a respective test assay, wherein the incubation assembly is configured to provide an incubation and/or measuring environment of the one or more test assays in the one or more compartments,
b) an interrogation and readout assembly configured to interrogate and readout the one or more test assays during incubation of the one or more carriers, wherein the interrogation and readout assembly is configured to facilitate i) measuring at least n times for each of the one or more test assays, with constant or inconstant frequency ƒ a signal derived from a chemical or physical property of the inoculated microorganism, wherein the signal represents an essentially monotonic function of the number of the microorganisms in the measured test assay, and ii) reading out corresponding values {xi} at corresponding recording times {ti}, wherein i represents the index number of the measurement represented by an integer 1 to n, and wherein n represents a full integer of 13 or more measurements, and
c) a computing assembly comprising one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising i) receiving from the interrogation and readout assembly the number n of readouts, the values {xi} and corresponding recording times {ti} and ii) estimating one or more slopes of linear trends α in data as a function of distribution of a difference from a subtraction of constituents of a pair of readout values {xi} and {xj}, where j>i, divided by the time interval δtij between taking readouts indexed i and j, whereby part or all of the n readout values {xi}, but at least 13 or more readout values {xi} at corresponding recording times {ti} are used for the distribution, and iii) determining the qualitative or quantitative susceptibility of the inoculated microorganism against the single anti microbial agent or the combination of antimicrobial agents as a function of one or more slopes of linear trends α.