Use of BBL CHROMagar MRSA medium for identification of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus directly from blood cultures

We evaluated the ability of BBL CHROMagar MRSA medium (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD) to identify methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) directly upon subculture from positive blood culture bottles. There were 124 MRSA isolates recovered from blood cultures in the study. BBL CHROMagar MRSA medium was highly sensitive (97.6% [121/124] at 18 to 24 h of incubation and 100% [124/124] at 48 h) and 99.9% specific for identifying MRSA from positive blood cultures.