DIRECT BACTERIAL IDENTIFICATION FROM POSITIVE BACT ALERT BLOOD CULTURES USING MICROSCAN OVERNIGHT AND RAPID PANELS/

Studies were conducted on a method of direct inoculation of MicroScan overnight and rapid panels from positive BacT/Alert blood culture bott les containing standard aerobic media to determine the correlation wit h inoculation of the corresponding panels with a standardized bacteria l suspension? obtained following subculture to agar. For Gram-negative organisms, 122 of 127 (96%) overnight panels and 85 of 118 (72%) rapi d panels showed complete agreement with the standard method for specie s identification. Highest concordance (99%) occurred with Enterobacter iaceae inoculated directly into overnight panels. For Gram-positive or ganisms, 70 of 85 (82%) overnight panels and 45 of 86 (52%) rapid pane ls showed complete agreement. These findings suggest that direct inocu lation? of Gram-negative overnight MicroScan panels yields results mos t comparable to standard methods when Enterobacteriaceae are detected and allows reporting of results 18 to 24 h sooner. Direct inoculation of Gram-positive overnight or rapid panels and Gram-negative rapid pan els from tills blood culture medium did not yield acceptable identific ation results and is not recommended. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.