Ten years of external quality assessment (EQA) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Europe elucidate high reliability of data

Table 2 Different MIC breakpoints for azithromycin used in the European gonococcal External Quality Assessments (EQAs) from 2007 to 2012

No. of laboratories* (n = 104)	No. of laboratories 2007 (n = 12)	No. of laboratories 2012 (n = 14)	Azithromycin MIC breakpoints (mg/L)
No. of laboratories* (n = 104)	No. of laboratories 2007 (n = 12)	No. of laboratories 2012 (n = 14)	S ≤	I	R >
31 (29.8%)	4 (33.3%)	4 (28.6%)	0.5	–	0.5
29 (27.9%)	0	6 (42.9%)	0.25^a	0.5^a	0.5^a
11 (10.6%)	2 (16.7%)	1 (7.1%)	1	–	1^b
7 (6.7%)	2 (16.7%)	0	0.5	1	1
6 (5.8%)	1 (8.3%)	0	2	–	–
6 (5.8%)	0	2 (14.3%)	0.25	–	0.25
1 (1.0%)	0	0	0.125	0.25–0.5	0.5
1 (1.0%)	0	0	0.125	0.25–1	1
1 (1.0%)	1 (8.3%)	0	0.25	0.5–1	1
1 (1.0%)	1 (8.3%)	0	4
10 (9.6%)	1 (8.3%)	1 (7.1%)	None given

Note: Detailed interpretative MIC data was only available until 2012. Adherence to published breakpoints collected post-2012
*Includes total number of participants at each distribution, i.e. the same laboratory will be counted at each distribution
^aCurrent EUCAST breakpoints
^bUS GISP alert value MIC (https://www.cdc.gov/std/gisp/GISP-Protocol-May-2016.pdf)

ISSN: 1471-2334