∞ generated and posted on 2016.02.20 ∞
Amount of antimicrobial necessary to prevent the growth of specific microorganisms, where lower amounts will fail to prevent that growth.
Minimum inhibitory concentrations are not equivalent to that antimicrobial density necessary to kill microorganisms, which for bacteria as targets would instead be the minimum bactericidal concentration. MICs typically are much lower than therapeutic doses due to various dilutions, inactivation, excretion, and otherwise inefficiencies in action associated with antibiotic efficacy in patients.
MICs represent not only an inadequate dosing density and even an inadequate in situ therapeutic target density. MICs instead represent an absolute minimum drug density below which control of bacterial infections is no longer in any manner assured.