Ultra-Fast Direct Method for Identifying Microorganisms from BACTEC Lytic/10 Anaerobic/F Flasks

Abstract

Background: Fast diagnosis of bloodstream infections remains the most important challenge for clinical microbiologists. The introduction of the mass-spectrometry represents a breakthrough, although several methods are already commonly used for the direct identification from positive blood cultures we present a faster method (ultra fast) for Lytic anaerobic flasks. Methods: We compare the ultra-fast (UF) method with the extensively employed differential centrifugation method (DC) and both to routine identification after 18–24 h of incubation. UF and DC method correlation rates to the gold standard were calculated, and statistical significance was proved with the Z test. Results: UF performed better overall than DC, with this difference being statistically significant. This tendency was observed in every subanalysis.

Keywords::

• blood culture
• bloodstream infection
• MALDI-TOF
• mass spectrometry

Author contributions

M Urrutikoetxea-Gutiérrez described the ultra-fast method and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. M Sánchez Montiel performed most of the identification experiments. M Urrutikoetxea-Gutiérrez, M Vidal-Garcia and JL Díazde Tuesta designed the study. M Basaras and M Vidal-Garcia were both major contributors in writing the manuscript. R Cisterna Cancer reviewed the study in its entirety. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Data sharing statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.