Abstract
Under the auspices of the Welsh Standing Specialist Advisory Working Group in Microbiology (WMG) 10 clinical microbiology laboratories in Wales undertook a collaborative study to assess 10 commercial kits for the identification of aerobic Gram negative bacilli. In excess of 1000 such strains were examined in parallel with each kit system. Accuracy, reproducibility of accuracy, and reproducibility alone were assessed, together with the cost effectiveness of the kits used. A ranking order of kit performance based on the above variables was drawn up.