Rapid identification of bacteria from bioMérieux BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles by MALDI-TOF MS.

Rapid identification of bacteria from bioMérieux BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles by MALDI-TOF MS. Br J Biomed Sci. 2013;70(4):149-55 Authors: Haigh JD, Green IM, Ball D, Eydmann M, Millar M, Wilks M Abstract Several studies have reported poor results when trying to identify microorganisms directly from the bioMérieux BacT/ALERT blood culture system using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. The aim of this study is to evaluate two new methods, Sepsityper and an enrichment method for direct identification of microorganisms from this system. For both methods the samples were processed using the Bruker Microflex LT mass spectrometer (Biotyper) using the Microflex Control software to obtain spectra. The results from direct analysis were compared with those obtained by subculture and subsequent identification. A total of 350 positive blood cultures were processed simultaneously by the two methods. Fifty-three cultures were polymocrobial or failed to grow any organism on subculture, and these results were not included as there was either no subculture result, or for polymicrobial cultures it was known that the Biotyper would not be able to distinguish the constituent organisms correctly. Overall, the results showed that, contrary to previous reports, it is possible to identify bacteria directly from bioMérieux blood culture bottles, as 219/297 (74%) correct identifications were obtai...
Source: British Journal of Biomedical Science - Category: Laboratory Medicine Tags: Br J Biomed Sci Source Type: research