Patent ID: 8241865

Claim:
An antimicrobial susceptibility assay kit, including: an assay dish, said dish including a plurality of chambers, each of said chambers comprising at least one wall; at least one growth medium carried by the assay dish; at least one chamber facilitating an antimicrobial susceptibility assay regarding at least one antimicrobial agent; at least one chamber facilitating isolation of microorganisms and enabling obtaining more information about microorganism in a sample under test, including at least one of: a) observation of colony characteristics so as to determine at least one of a presence of a predominating species, presence of essentially a single species, or presence of a mixed culture without predominance; b) identification of a trait of a predominating species useful in presumptive identification of the predominating species; c) enablement of further testing from at least one isolated culture; d) determination of an approximate concentration of microorganisms in the sample, e) a determination that the concentration is within a range wherein an antimicrobial susceptibility assay result carried out in said at least one chamber facilitating an antimicrobial susceptibility assay will be valid; a visual comparison standard enabling an approximation of the concentration of the microorganism in the sample under test sufficient to confirm validity of the assay; at least one antimicrobial agent sample; at least one sample location; at least one interpretive indication, positionable at a predetermined location with respect to the location of a corresponding sample location adjacent a growth medium in the assay dish where a corresponding antimicrobial agent sample can be accurately placed; an interfitting element, said interfitting element configured to enable at least one of: a) more accurately positioning at least one antimicrobial agent sample at a sample location in contact with a growth medium; b) providing at least one interpretive indication at a predetermined location with respect to the location of a corresponding sample location adjacent a growth medium in the assay dish where a corresponding antimicrobial agent sample can be accurately placed, said interfitting element and said assay dish being configured to interfit so that the interfitting element is positioned in a predetermined way with respect to the assay dish so that they cooperate to enable in each case a more accurate relative location of an antimicrobial agent sample at a sample location with respect to at least one corresponding interpretive indication, and after incubation of a microorganism under test, in each case for said at least one corresponding interpretive indication to be visually compared with a margin of a zone of inhibition of colonies grown on one of said growth mediums to directly determine an assay result in each case.