Efficacies of rapid agglutination tests for identification of methicillin-resistant staphylococcal strains as Staphylococcus aureus. |
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| Authors: | J Piper T Hadfield F McCleskey M Evans S Friedstrom P Lauderdale R Winn |
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| Affiliation: | Division of Infectious Diseases, Wilford Hall U.S. Air Force Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas 78236. |
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| Abstract: | Four commercially available rapid agglutination tests for the identification of Staphylococcus aureus were compared with the tube coagulase test for the identification of 300 methicillin-resistant isolates of staphylococci. Isolates tested included 207 methicillin-resistant S. aureus and 93 coagulase-negative staphylococci, collected from five medical centers. Strain variability was documented by phage typing and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Results of rapid identification tests ranged between 82 and 86% sensitivity, significantly poorer than the 98% sensitivity which the tube coagulase test provided. |
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