title: Simplified and reliable scheme for species-level identification of Staphylococcus clinical isolates.
abstract: Reliable and rapid identification of staphylococcal strains continues to be a problem faced by many microbiology laboratories. This study evaluates a simplified method that uses a flowchart to assist in the identification of 12 clinical species of Staphylococcus, including eight subspecies. A total of 198 isolates and 11 control strains were identified by the reference method, which employed 22 tests. The results were compared with those obtained by two other methods: an automated system (MicroScan WalkAway) and a simplified method composed of nine tests. The simplified scheme showed an accuracy of 98.5%, while the automated method showed an accuracy of 79.3% (P < 0.001), in identifying staphylococcal species. Atypical phenotypic profiles were detected by both the reference (55.6%) and the simplified (19.7%) methods. The simplified method proposed here was shown to be reliable, with the advantage of being more practical and economic than the reference method.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Natalia Lopes Pontes
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Iorio
authors.forename: Rosana Barreto Rocha
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Ricardo Pinto
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Schuenck
authors.forename: Karoline Lourenco
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Malvar
authors.forename: Anike Pereira
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Brilhante
authors.forename: Ana Paula Ferreira
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.forename: Carla Callegário Reis
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Bastos
authors.forename: Kátia Regina Netto
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Dos Santos
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*