Simplified and reliable scheme for species-level identification of Staphylococcus clinical isolates.
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.
Iorio
Natalia Lopes Pontes
NL
Institute of Microbiology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ferreira
Rosana Barreto Rocha
RB
Schuenck
Ricardo Pinto
RP
Malvar
Karoline Lourenco
KL
Brilhante
Anike Pereira
AP
Nunes
Ana Paula Ferreira
AP
Bastos
Carla Callegário Reis
CC
Dos Santos
Kátia Regina Netto
KR
D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*