Vitek Saline

[Ed]

Yersinia,
I suspect Vitek use a lower saline level to get users to buy their little
disposable units premade.
We used 0.85% with no difference in results on our 'ancient' vitek now
deceased.
Vitek was ~ok (ish) for routine and control organisms, but woeful for
environmental isolates.
Taxonomy changes but commercial databases are slow to follow. Pseudomonas
cepacea stills lives on in API, and I suspect your namesake pestis is still
a Pasteurella in some places. Remember - " Microbiologists do it with
culture and sensitivity." 
Ed

Yersinia <yersinia at CYBERNEX.NET> wrote in article
<199711190205.VAA26630 at pop.cybernex.net>...
> Hello everyone,
> 
> Does anyone know *why* it is necessary to use a .45 or .5% saline 
> solution, rather than a .85% saline solution, when preparing bacterial 
> suspensions for identification on Vitek? I asked someone at work today, 
> who could only say , about the .85% saline, "it doesn't work right," and 
> our Keeper of the Vitek Cards (who also had no idea) told me she didn't 
> want me "wasting" cards on the experiment I proposed (i.e., preparing the

> same known organism, such as S. aureus ATCC #6538 in solution with .45% 
> saline and in .85% saline, then filling a GPI card with each/comparing 
> the results and perhaps doing the same with E. coli #8739/GNI; P. 
> aeruginosa #9027/NFC; B. subtilis #6633/BAC).
> 
> Well, I'm just really curious about this, hope someone out there knows! 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
> Infectionately,
> Yersinia.
> 
> "Hell no, let 'em grow!"
> 
>