Question

if the laboratory report for one of your patients indicated colonies within zone, what concerns would you have for your patient

Answer 1

Zone of inhibition: The area of clearing around antimicrobial disks that depends upon the sensitivity of bacteria to the specific antimicrobial agent. The results may If an antibiotic stops the bacteria from growing or kills the bacteria, there will be an area around the wafer where the bacteria have not grown enough to be visible.
The size of the zone of inhibition indicates the degree of sensitivity(susceptibility) of bacteria to a drug. A bigger area of bacteria-free media surrounding an antibiotic disk means the bacteria are more sensitive to the drug the disk contains.

Colonies grows within zone of inhibition means colonies are resistant mutants. These colonies are resistant to the antibiotic.

In such patients an MIC determination might be appropriate. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is determined when a patient does not respond to treatment thought to be adequate, relapses while being treated or when there is immunosuppression. It is generally regarded as the most basic laboratory measurement of the activity of an antimicrobial agent against an organism. Because a lower MIC value indicates that less of the drug is required in order to inhibit growth of the organism, drugs with lower MIC scores are more effective antimicrobial agents.The lowest concentration at which the isolate is completely inhibited (i.e., absence of visible bacterial growth) is recorded as the minimal inhibitory concentration or MIC.