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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Candida albicans Detection in Catheter Infections Using Fluorescent Protein Tagging
Published on: March 22, 2024
Evaluation of the Vitek-MS™ system in the identification of Candida isolates from bloodstream infections
Carlos Ruiz de Alegría Puig1, Jesús Agüero-Balbín2, Carlos Fernández-Mazarrasa1
1Microbiology Service, Marqués de Valdecilla-IDIVAL University Hospital, Spain.
Background:
Matrix-assisted laser desorption-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) represents a revolution in the identification of microorganisms of clinical interest. Many studies have confirmed the accuracy and fastness of this tool with routine strains.
Aims:
To identify clinical isolates of Candida from patients diagnosed with candidemia.
Methods:
Vitek-MS™ system was used with a collection of 298 blood isolates of the genus Candida represented by 9 different species. Sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA cluster was used as the reference method.
Results:
The results of Vitek-MS™ were concordant with those obtained with the reference method for 279 (93.62%) isolates (Kappa coefficient (κ)=0.91). Vitek-MS™ misidentified 10 (3.36%) isolates and did not identify 9 (3.02%) isolates.
Conclusions:
This study determines the potential of Vitek-MS™ in yeast identification, being a reliable and fast alternative in the clinical laboratory, with an acceptable sensitivity of 82% (IC 95%: 70-90.6%), in comparison with a 100% (IC 95%: 92.9-100%) sensitivity of the conventional methods.
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