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All urinary tract isolates were monitored in the Whittington Hospital, London for trimethoprim resistance over a three-month period in 1975; this survey was repeated 18 months later in 1977. In the later survey the incidence of trimethoprim resistance had increased significantly, and the proportion of strains carrying R-factors conferring trimethoprim resistance had nearly doubled. The pattern of resistances associated with R-factor trimethoprim resistance also changed betweeen these two surveys.

Of 251 isolates of the Enterobacteriaceae identified to species level by API 20E, 208 (83%) were similarily identified by the Sensititre Autoidentification System. Both systems shared a common problem in that discrimination between species of the genera Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Serratia was poor. The eight digit biocode generated by the Sensititre system for individual isolates is not reproducible and therefore not of epidemiological value.