Vitek^® MS v3.0 System in the Identification of Filamentous Fungi

Infections caused by filamentous fungi are rising in incidence and became a serious health concern. Their rapid and reliable identification in the clinical laboratory is essential for an early and accurate diagnosis to guide timely therapy. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been reported as a rapid and reliable method for identification of bacteria and yeasts isolated from clinical samples. However, it has less used for molds identification. The aim of this study was to evaluate Vitek^® MS (a MALDI-TOF MS system) ability to identify molds and differentiate species within a complex. A collection of 90 filamentous fungi, 70 clinical and 20 environmental isolates, was studied by morphological and molecular methods and by Vitek^® MS. Seventy-four isolates (82.2%) were identified using Vitek^® MS v3.0 at Genus/Complex/Species group level; within these, 47/74 (63.5%) were correctly identified at species level and only one was misidentified. In contrast, 16/90 isolates (17.8%) were not identified, of which 13 were not present in the database. Results here expressed favor Vitek^® MS v3.0 as a very useful system for identification of most common clinical isolates of filamentous fungi. Accordingly, it may be an important tool for clinical microbiology laboratories in their task to answer to clinicians, adequately and rapidly, helping in proper patient's management.