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Rapid detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from screening enrichment broths by real-time PCR.

Levi K, Towner KJ

Department of Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostics and Typing Unit, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. katrina.levi@qmc.nhs.uk

The aim of this study was to evaluate real-time PCR (LightCycler) kits for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in enrichment broth using 200 sets of patient screening swab samples. One hundred sets were processed using a lysostaphin/lysozyme extraction method and a further 100 were tested using a column extraction kit. The PCR kits with lysostaphin/lysozyme lysis showed 95.7% sensitivity, 90.8% specificity, and negative and positive predictive values of 98.6% and 75.9%, respectively, compared with 88%, 95.9%, 84.6% and 95.9%, respectively, with the column extraction kit.

Published 4 July 2005 in Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis, 24(6): 423-7.
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