MRSA Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about MRSA, including details on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, hospitals, infection, antibiotic resistance, superbugs.

Improvement of a latex agglutination test for the evaluation of oxacillin resistance in coagulase-negative staphylococci.

Corso A, Soloaga R, Faccone D, Gagetti P, Corbella S, Iglesias M, Galas M

Servicio Antimicrobianos, Departamento Bacteriología, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas-ANLIS Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina. acorso@anlis.gov.ar

The "Slidex MRSA Detection" test (Denka Seiken, Japan) is a latex agglutination assay able to detect PBP2a. We evaluated its ability to differentiate mecA-positive from mecA-negative coagulase-negative staphylococci. We included 100 coagulase-negative staphylococci clinical isolates belonging to 9 species, 54 mecA positive and 46 mecA negative, as characterized by PCR. The specificity achieved using the manufacturer's instructions was 100%, but the sensitivity was only 57%. To increase sensitivity, we introduced modifications into the standard protocol. Using either large inocula or oxacillin induction before test performance, we achieved 100% sensitivity.

Published 15 November 2004 in Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis, 50(3): 223-5.
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