Continuing Challenges for the Clinical Laboratory for Detection of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Detecting carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) can be difficult. In particular, the absence of FDA-cleared automated antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) devices that use revised Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) carbapenem breakpoints for Enterobacteriaceae and the lack of active surveillance tests hamper the clinical laboratory. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Lau and colleagues (A. F. Lau, G. A. Fahle, M. A. Kemp, A. N. Jassem, J. P. Dekker, and K. M. Frank, J Clin Microbiol 53:3729-3737, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01921-15) evaluate the performance of a research-use-only PCR for the detection of CRE in rectal surveillance specimens.