Direct Gram staining and its various benefits in the diagnosis of bacterial infections

ABSTRACT

In the era of rapid development of molecular and other diagnostic methods, direct Gram staining (DGS) tends to remain in the background, although it can provide both microbiologists and clinicians numerous benefits. The aim of this review was to emphasize the importance of DGS for the diagnosis of many clinically important infections. A PubMed search was carried out using relevant keywords for articles published primarily since 2010. The DGS can provide early information for a timely diagnosis of infections, can reveal the causative agents of the infections even under suboptimal conditions of specimen collection, transport or identification methods, can detect the presence of rare/unusual pathogens, moreover, the method shows the specimen quality, by distinguishing between contamination and true infection, it can direct or change initial antibiotic treatment before the availability of culture results, can indicate the need of other methods for pathogen identification and, in some cases, can show the need for emergency attention such as urgent antibiotic therapy and surgical measures. Briefly, the DGS remains an easy, rapid, inexpensive and important method, which use should be encouraged in conditions of a standardized and controlled performance to avoid technical or interpretation errors.

KEYWORDS:

• Diagnostic method
• infection control
• sensitivity and specificity
• benefits
• health
• bacterial infections

Declaration of interests

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This work has no funding.