Selection of a surrogate agent (vancomycin or teicoplanin) for initial susceptibility testing of dalbavancin: results from an international antimicrobial surveillance program.

The immediate lack of market-dominating commercial products (Vitek or MicroScan) for susceptibility testing of the new glycolipopeptide, dalbavancin, requires a surrogate marker agent to assist microbiologists in the correct categorization of potentially indicated species (staphylococci and streptococci). Error-rate analyses for 16,749 isolates using vancomycin or teicoplanin results to categorize dalbavancin susceptibilities demonstrated that both glycopeptide agents were highly predictive of dalbavancin-susceptible results (nearly 100%) with only a rare minor error. Vancomycin test results most reliably predict dalbavancin susceptibility until validated commercial reagents become available for direct testing in clinical practice.