An automated method for monitoring cell culture growth, in particular bacterial growth, wherein in the method - a receiving dish with a nutrient medium is provided onto which is applied a cell culture, in particular a sample of human or animal tissue, such as e.g. blood, to which bacteria have been added and which also contains one or a plurality of reagents, in particular antibiotics, - a microscope having an optical axis and including a camera and a slide for the receiving dish adapted to be automatically moved along the optical axis and/or an acquisition optic unit adapted to be automatically moved along the optical axis is provided, - the receiving dish is brought into the microscope for monitoring a potential growth of the cell culture in the nutrient medium, - at predetermined time intervals, in particular in the single-digit minute range, an image of the nutrient medium is acquired using the camera of the microscope by moving the image acquisition plane along the optical axis through the nutrient medium by means of at least one of the movable slide and/or the acquisition optic unit of the microscope, one image per image acquisition plane is acquired, and, from the group of acquired images, the highest-contrast image of the nutrient medium or an image of the nutrient medium with a contrast sufficient for the subsequent automatic further processing of the image is automatically selected and stored, where required, by means of an image evaluation software, - for selecting the highest-contrast image or for selecting the image with a contrast sufficient for the subsequent further processing of the image, the image acquired first is stored as the image determined as having the highest contrast so far, and each further acquired image is compared to the stored image, and if this image has a higher contrast than the stored image, it is stored as the image determined as having the highest contrast so far, - by means of the image evaluation software, the size of the area occupied by the cell culture is automatically determined on the basis of the selected image, and - on the basis of the sizes of those areas of the respective selected images that are occupied by the cell culture, it is determined whether the cell culture is growing or not. - a receiving dish with a nutrient medium is provided onto which is applied a cell culture, in particular a sample of human or animal tissue, such as e.g. blood, to which bacteria have been added and which also contains one or a plurality of reagents, in particular antibiotics, - a microscope having an optical axis and including a camera and a slide for the receiving dish adapted to be automatically moved along the optical axis and/or an acquisition optic unit adapted to be automatically moved along the optical axis is provided, - the receiving dish is brought into the microscope for monitoring a potential growth of the cell culture in the nutrient medium, - at predetermined time intervals, in particular in the single-digit minute range, an image of the nutrient medium is acquired using the camera of the microscope by moving the image acquisition plane along the optical axis through the nutrient medium by means of at least one of the movable slide and/or the acquisition optic unit of the microscope, one image per image acquisition plane is acquired, and, from the group of acquired images, the highest-contrast image of the nutrient medium or an image of the nutrient medium with a contrast sufficient for the subsequent automatic further processing of the image is automatically selected and stored, where required, by means of an image evaluation software, - for selecting the highest-contrast image or for selecting the image with a contrast sufficient for the subsequent further processing of the image, the image acquired first is stored as the image determined as having the highest contrast so far, and each further acquired image is compared to the stored image, and if this image has a higher contrast than the stored image, it is stored as the image determined as having the highest contrast so far, - by means of the image evaluation software, the size of the area occupied by the cell culture is automatically determined on the basis of the selected image, and - on the basis of the sizes of those areas of the respective selected images that are occupied by the cell culture, it is determined whether the cell culture is growing or not.