Misidentification of a commensal inactive Escherichia coli as Shigella sonnei by an automated system in a critically ill patient.
BACKGROUND
Though automated identification and sensitivity testing has established itself as a standard in many high throughput clinical microbiology laboratories, misidentification by the automated systems can also happen.


METHODS
Here we present a case of sepsis, caused by a commensal inactive Escherichia coli, which had been repeatedly misidentified as Shigella sonnei by VITEK 2 compact.


CONCLUSIONS
The laboratory worker should always be aware of possible misidentification and limitations of automated systems.
Department of Microbiology, St. John's Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore, India.
Soham
S
Gupta
Chowdappa
C
Aruna
Sethumadhavan
S
Muralidharan
D000328:Adult; D001331:Automation; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D012764:Shigella sonnei / Q000302:isolation & purification*