MIC, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration

🦠 Understanding MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration)

**MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration)** is a crucial parameter when interpreting **automated culture system results** like **Vitek-2**, which are based on **CLSI guidelines**.

**Definition:** MIC is the **lowest concentration of a drug** that inhibits the **growth of a given bacterial strain**.

⚠️ MIC Alone Is NOT Enough for Drug Selection

**Selection of antibiotics should not be based on MIC alone**, because **sensitive breakpoints vary for each drug**.

Instead, we use the **Therapeutic Index (TI)** to make better clinical decisions.

**Formula:** TI = Sensitive Breakpoint / MIC

**Higher TI = Better Sensitivity**

Friday ID Day

📊 Comparing Two Drugs Using TI

Let’s compare two drugs based on **MIC and Therapeutic Index (TI):**

🧮 Calculating TI

**Conclusion:** Although **Drug 2 has a lower MIC**, **Drug 1 is the better choice** because it has a **higher TI (8 vs. 4)**.

🔬 Key Learning

If you only consider MIC, **Drug 2 may seem better** (since it has a lower MIC), but **Therapeutic Index (TI) is the correct way to assess antibiotic effectiveness**.

✅ **Higher the TI, better the sensitivity and clinical effectiveness**.

📢 Key Takeaways

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