A new chromogenic agar medium, chromID VRE, to screen for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Microbiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Diagnostic Microbiology

Background:

• Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are a significant cause of hospital-acquired infections.
• Accurate and rapid detection of VRE from clinical specimens is crucial for infection control.
• Existing diagnostic methods require evaluation for improved performance and differentiation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the performance of chromID VRE agar with bile esculin azide vancomycin (BEAV) agar for VRE detection.
• To assess the sensitivity and specificity of chromID VRE for identifying Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis.
• To evaluate the ability of chromID VRE to differentiate between VRE species.

Main Methods:

• 120 clinical stool specimens were analyzed.
• Specimens were plated on both chromID VRE and BEAV agar.
• Plates were incubated and examined at 24 and 48 hours.

Main Results:

• At 24 hours, BEAV agar showed 90.2% sensitivity and 73% specificity.
• At 24 hours, chromID VRE demonstrated 86.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity.
• ChromID VRE achieved 85.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity for E. faecium, and 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity for E. faecalis.

Conclusions:

• ChromID VRE offers equivalent sensitivity for VRE recovery from stool specimens compared to BEAV agar.
• ChromID VRE provides superior specificity in VRE detection.
• ChromID VRE effectively differentiates between vancomycin-resistant E. faecium and E. faecalis.