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.

Evaluation of mannitol salt agar, CHROMagar Staph aureus and CHROMagar MRSA for detection of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from nasal swab specimens.

Han Z, Lautenbach E, Fishman N, Nachamkin I

Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Mannitol salt agar (MSA), CHROMagar Staph aureus (CSA) and CHROMagar MRSA (CSA-MRSA) were evaluated with nasal surveillance specimens for their ability to detect Staphylococcus aureus and meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). CSA was found to be more sensitive than MSA in detecting S. aureus (98 versus 84.3 %; P=0.03). CSA and CSA-MRSA were equivalent in the ability to detect MRSA at 24 h (89.7 versus 87.2 %) and at 48 h (94.9 versus 94.9 %). When combined with Staphaurex slide confirmation testing, both CSA and CSA-MRSA were highly specific (100 %) media for detecting MRSA from nasal swab specimens.

Published 18 December 2006 in J Med Microbiol, 56: 43-6.
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