Minimum Inhibitory concentration

A Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) is the smallest concentration of an antimicrobial required to prevent any visible growth of a microorganism after incubation for one night. 

The MIC can be determined cultuing microorganisms in liquid media or on plates of solid growth medium. 

The lover the MIC value indicated that less drug is required for inhibiting gorwth of the organisms; therefore, drugs with lower MIC scores are more effective antimicrobial agents.

MICs are used by researchers as a basis to express antibiotic resistance of microbes to antimicrobials. 

The importance of MICs allows clinicians to determine if they are using the correct drug treatment for patients. Identifying appropriate drug concentraions can improve outcomes for patients and prevent the evolution of drug-resisant microbial strains. 

There are three states of susceptibilty; Sensitive, Intermediate and Resistant.