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Comparison of three chromogenic media and enrichment broth media for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from mucocutaneous screening specimens

Comparison of MRSA chromogenic media

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Abstract

This study compares the performance of three chromogenic culture agar plates, chromID MRSA, MRSA-Screen and MRSA-Select, by challenging with a collection of Staphylococcus aureus strains and screening samples obtained from hospitalised patients. All chromogenic media showed excellent sensitivity (>95%) and specificity after 18 h on the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) collection strains, but the specificity of MRSA-Screen decreased markedly after 42 h. Sixty-eight of 1,002 screening specimens yielded MRSA on at least one medium. The sensitivity of all media to detecting MRSA after 18 h was <50%, but this increased to 75% (chromID MRSA), 81% (MRSA-Screen) and 72% (MRSA-Select) after 42 h and 85% after enrichment and plating on the same media. The specificity at 18 h was excellent, but was significantly lower for MRSA-Screen after 42 h and enrichment. In conclusion, all media showed equivalent sensitivities after 18 h of incubation and performed better when enriched before inoculation. MRSA-Screen was more sensitive but less specific than the two other media after 42 h of incubation.

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Acknowledgements

Chromogenic media MRSA-Screen and MRSA-Select were kindly provided by Oxoid (Basingstoke, UK) and Bio-Rad (Marnes-la-Coquette, France), respectively.

Conflict of interest

Marc Struelens has received research grant support from bioMérieux, travel and research grant support from bioMérieux, BD Diagnostics and Cepheid, and fees for consulting from bioMérieux, 3M Medical Diagnostics, Eppendorf Array Technologies and Philips Molecular Diagnostics. The other authors have none to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Référence MRSA—Staphylocoques, Service de Microbiologie, Hôpital Erasme, 808, route de Lennik, 1070, Bruxelles, Belgium

    C. Nonhoff, O. Denis, A. Brenner, P. Buidin, N. Legros, C. Thiroux & M. J. Struelens

  2. Département de Biostatistiques, Ecole de Santé Publique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808, route de Lennik, Bruxelles, Belgium

    M. Dramaix

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  1. C. Nonhoff
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Correspondence to C. Nonhoff.

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Nonhoff, C., Denis, O., Brenner, A. et al. Comparison of three chromogenic media and enrichment broth media for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from mucocutaneous screening specimens. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 28, 363–369 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-008-0637-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-008-0637-9

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