EUCAST is the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, convened by the ESCMID (The European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) and national breakpoint committees in Europe (currently from France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK). EUCAST has representatives from all European countries. EUCAST is financed by ESCMID, national breakpoint committees in Europe and a grant from the European Union.

EUCAST defines clincial breakpoints and epidemiological cut-off values. The clinical breakpoints should be used in everyday clinical laboratory work to advice on therapy in the patient. The epidemiological cut-off values can be used as the most sensitive measure of resistance development - for measuring resistance development in hospitals and the community, for measuring the effect of interventions and for developing strategies to counteract further resistance development. Wild type distributions of relevant bacteria can be acquired from the MIC breakpoint tables by clicking on the name of the antibiotic. 

EUCAST expects to finalise harmonising clinical breakpoints for existing antimicrobials by April 2008.

EUCAST, EMEA (the European Medicines Evaluation Agency) and the pharmaceutical industry have developed a standard operation procedure (EMEA 2005, revised 2007)) to describe the role of EUCAST in the registration process for new antimicrobial drugs. EUCAST will address the question of antimicrobial breakpoints as a part of the registration process. Pharmaceutical companies are encouraged to make contact with EUCAST early in the process.

 

EUCAST Expert Rules in AntimicrobialSusceptibility Testing (2008-April-07)

Presentations at Workshop, ECCMID, Barcelona 2008: "Expert rules in susceptibility testing"