Communicable E59: 'Ask me anything' – EUCAST and CLSI leadership explain

In this episode of Communicable, Nav Narayanan and Thomas Tängdén kick off the first 'Ask me anything' episode, inviting EUCAST and CLSI leadership Sören Gatermann, Christian Giske and Amy Mathers to answer questions from our listeners. Together, they discuss the roles and operations of both organisations, similarities and differences between EUCAST and CLSI, how breakpoints and guidance documents are developed, set the record straight about the 'I' category, explain which data inform breakpoint decisions, and much more.This episode was edited by Communicable's executive producer, Angela Huttner. Further readingDocuments/resources:CLSI MicroFree, https://em100.edaptivedocs.net/Login.aspx?ru=1EUCAST: When there are no antifungal breakpointsEUCAST: When there are no breakpoints?Use_of_fosfomycin_iv_breakpoints_General_advice_20240528.pdfEUCAST: Definition of S, I and REUCAST Guidance Document, “When there are no breakpoints”, https://www.eucast.org/bacteria/guidance-documents/EUCAST Guidance Document for “Rare Yeasts”, https://www.eucast.org/fungi-afst/guidance-documents/Articles (alphabetical): Bixby ML, et al. Fosfomycin Disk Diffusion Testing among Klebsiella pneumoniae Results in Frequent Inner Colonies and Categorical Disagreement Based on Conflicting Breakpoint Organization Recommendations. Microbiol Spectr 2023. DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.03363-22DeMarco MG, et al. Impact of media brand on cefiderocol disk diffusion results. J Clin Microbiol 2025. DOI: 10.1128/jcm.01648-24</li