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Radian™ is a new system from COPAN Diagnostics Inc. for fully automating Kirby-Bauer susceptibility testing. The solution comprises automated seeding of Mueller Hinton plates, application of antibiotic discs, robotic incubation of plates, imaging, zone size interpretation, and result output using Expert software.
Little has changed in the manual preparation of Kirby-Bauer Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (KB-AST) since its first description in 1959. In following decades, various automated breakpoint or MIC panel-based AST methods have largely taken the place of Kirby-Bauer for the majority of AST testing. Recently, there has been a great resurgence of interest in KB-AST in due to the possibility it offers for early AST reading times in 4, 6, or 8 hours, and the tremendous flexibility to add new drugs for extended susceptibility testing, especially with the emergence of more resistant strains of bacteria.
A major drawback of the conventional KB-AST is the completely manual set up, followed by a manual or standalone automated camera read and interpretation instrument. COPAN's Radian™ is a breakthrough technological package, and the first of its kind on the market to offer a fully integrated and automated system for KB-AST. Starting from a McFarland suspension including seeding of Mueller Hinton plates, automatic application of AST discs from a selection of 50 drug possibilities, followed by the automatic incubation, imaging of plates at specified intervals (including early readings) and the expert interpretation of inhibition zones using European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) rules to derive sensitive, intermediate or resistant results.
Like all COPAN automation solutions, Radian™ is designed to be modular and scalable. The system can be retrofitted into most existing WASPLab™ platforms. Radian™ is an open system that can be used with various qualified manufacturers of Kirby-Bauer discs.
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