Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1994 Sep;32(9):2113–2119. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.9.2113-2119.1994

Efficacy of microbial identification system for epidemiologic typing of coagulase-negative staphylococci.

D Birnbaum 1, L Herwaldt 1, D E Low 1, M Noble 1, M Pfaller 1, R Sherertz 1, A W Chow 1
PMCID: PMC263952  PMID: 7814534

Abstract

The lack of an adequate typing system hampers our understanding of the epidemiology of infections caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS). CoNS have become recognized as important nosocomial pathogens and the principal cause of infections associated with invasive devices. Sensitive, specific, and convenient methods are needed to evaluate whether implementing infection control guidelines reduces the risk of nosocomial infections from CoNS and other pathogens. The Microbial Identification System (MIDI) (Microbial ID Inc., Newark, Del.), a semiautomated system for fatty acid methyl ester analysis, shows considerable promise for clinical and epidemiologic applications. Its predictive accuracy and reliability were tested by using epidemiologically related and replicated CoNS isolates as well as CoNS from epidemiologically unrelated clinical infections, which were obtained from five established hospital culture collections in diverse geographic locations. Two hundred isolates were fully characterized in 5 days by one person using MIDI, and the results were similar to those produced by more expensive and time-consuming conventional typing methods. MIDI appears to be a useful screening tool that could be used before more expensive and labor-intensive molecular methods. It offers important advantages to hospital epidemiologists and clinical microbiologists who must identify and type CoNS isolates.

Full text

PDF
2118

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Birnbaum D., Kelly M., Chow A. W. Epidemiologic typing systems for coagulase-negative staphylococci. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1991 May;12(5):319–326. doi: 10.1086/646347. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Birnbaum D. Nosocomial infection surveillance programs. Infect Control. 1987 Nov;8(11):474–479. doi: 10.1017/s0195941700069800. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Boyce J. M., Potter-Bynoe G., Opal S. M., Dziobek L., Medeiros A. A. A common-source outbreak of Staphylococcus epidermidis infections among patients undergoing cardiac surgery. J Infect Dis. 1990 Mar;161(3):493–499. doi: 10.1093/infdis/161.3.493. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Eerola E., Lehtonen O. P. Optimal data processing procedure for automatic bacterial identification by gas-liquid chromatography of cellular fatty acids. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Sep;26(9):1745–1753. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.9.1745-1753.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Garner J. S., Jarvis W. R., Emori T. G., Horan T. C., Hughes J. M. CDC definitions for nosocomial infections, 1988. Am J Infect Control. 1988 Jun;16(3):128–140. doi: 10.1016/0196-6553(88)90053-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Herwaldt L. A., Hollis R. J., Boyken L. D., Pfaller M. A. Molecular epidemiology of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from immunocompromised patients. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 1992 Feb;13(2):86–92. doi: 10.1086/646478. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hunter P. R., Gaston M. A. Numerical index of the discriminatory ability of typing systems: an application of Simpson's index of diversity. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Nov;26(11):2465–2466. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.11.2465-2466.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kotilainen P., Huovinen P., Eerola E. Application of gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of cellular fatty acids for species identification and typing of coagulase-negative staphylococci. J Clin Microbiol. 1991 Feb;29(2):315–322. doi: 10.1128/jcm.29.2.315-322.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Low D. E., Schmidt B. K., Kirpalani H. M., Moodie R., Kreiswirth B., Matlow A., Ford-Jones E. L. An endemic strain of Staphylococcus haemolyticus colonizing and causing bacteremia in neonatal intensive care unit patients. Pediatrics. 1992 Apr;89(4 Pt 2):696–700. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Mukwaya G. M., Welch D. F. Subgrouping of Pseudomonas cepacia by cellular fatty acid composition. J Clin Microbiol. 1989 Dec;27(12):2640–2646. doi: 10.1128/jcm.27.12.2640-2646.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. O'Donnell A. G., Nahaie M. R., Goodfellow M., Minnikin D. E., Hájek V. Numerical analysis of fatty acid profiles in the identification of staphylococci. J Gen Microbiol. 1985 Aug;131(8):2023–2033. doi: 10.1099/00221287-131-8-2023. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Osterhout G. J., Shull V. H., Dick J. D. Identification of clinical isolates of gram-negative nonfermentative bacteria by an automated cellular fatty acid identification system. J Clin Microbiol. 1991 Sep;29(9):1822–1830. doi: 10.1128/jcm.29.9.1822-1830.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sherertz R. J., Raad I. I., Belani A., Koo L. C., Rand K. H., Pickett D. L., Straub S. A., Fauerbach L. L. Three-year experience with sonicated vascular catheter cultures in a clinical microbiology laboratory. J Clin Microbiol. 1990 Jan;28(1):76–82. doi: 10.1128/jcm.28.1.76-82.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sitges-Serra A., Liñares J. Limitations of semiquantitative method for catheter culture. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 May;26(5):1074–1076. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.5.1074-1076.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES