Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus diagnostics: state of the art

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is among the most common causes of community- and healthcare-acquired infections, accounting for > 80,000 invasive infections in the United States in 2010 according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Active Bacterial Core Surveillance data. Control and treatment of MRSA depend on reliable identification, which is challenging. This article reviews the current status of detection and identification of MRSA.

Publications since 2001, guidelines from the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute and the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, common microbiology laboratory practices for identification and characterization of MRSA in human samples, and recent publications that assessed patient care outcomes of various detection and intervention strategies were surveyed for this review.

Given the predilection of Staphylococcus aureus to modify its genetic characteristics, thereby enabling the species to stay one step ahead of laboratory detection systems, phenotypic methods for detection of antibiotic resistance mechanisms, especially those directed against the beta-lactam family, will continue to be required, in some situations, for the foreseeable future. Molecular methods are now the gold standard for surveillance, yielding higher sensitivity than the slower, culture-based methods. The newer molecular surveillance methods for detecting methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) colonization and for rapid and accurate identification of S. aureus from growth in culture systems have revolutionized patient care, enabling rapid interventions that lead to better individual patient outcomes, such as fewer postsurgical site infections, and better overall institutional infection control (fewer healthcare-associated MRSA infections).