title: A 1.5 hour procedure for identification of Enterococcus Species directly from blood cultures.
abstract: Enterococci are a common cause of bacteremia with E. faecalis being the predominant species followed by E. faecium. Because resistance to ampicillin and vancomycin in E. faecalis is still uncommon compared to resistance in E. faecium, the development of rapid tests allowing differentiation between enterococcal species is important for appropriate therapy and resistance surveillance. The E. faecalis OE PNA FISH assay (AdvanDx, Woburn, MA) uses species-specific peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes in a fluorescence in situ hybridization format and offers a time to results of 1.5 hours and the potential of providing important information for species-specific treatment. Multicenter studies were performed to assess the performance of the 1.5 hour E. faecalis/OE PNA FISH procedure compared to the original 2.5 hour assay procedure and to standard bacteriology methods for the identification of enterococci directly from a positive blood culture bottle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Cente, USA.
authors.forename: Margie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marlowe
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Novak-Weekly
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Painter
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Salimnia
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crystal
mesh_terms: D016470:Bacteremia / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000145:classification*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence