International multicenter evaluation of latex agglutination tests for identification of Staphylococcus aureus

A newly marketed rapid agglutination kit for the identification of Staphylo coccus aureus, Slidex Staph Plus (bioMerieux), was compared to Staphaurex P lus (Murex Diagnostics) and Pastorex Staph-Plus (Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur ). The study took place in three clinical microbiology laboratories in thre e different European countries. A total of 892 staphylococcal isolates, inc luding 278 methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) isolates, 171 methicillin -resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates, and 443 coagulase-negative staphyloco ccal isolates, were analyzed. The sensitivities (MSSA/MRSA) and specificiti es, respectively, were 98.2% (98.9%/97.1%) and 98.9% for Slidex Staph Plus, 98.2% (98.2%/98.2%) and 96.2% for Staphaurex Plus, and 98.7% (98.6%/98.8%) and 95.7% for Pastorex Staph Plus. The specificity of the Slidex Staph Plu s kit was statistically significantly higher than the specificities of Stap haurex Plus and Pastorex Staph-Plus. The Slidex Staph Plus is a very reliab le test for the identification of S. aureus.