Identification and susceptibility testing of Staphylococcus aureus by direct inoculation from positive BACTEC blood culture bottles.

This study explored the possibility of combining direct inoculation of tube coagulase and DNase tests, and the VITEK2 system, from BACTEC blood culture bottles in order to achieve rapid identification and susceptibility testing of Staphylococcus aureus. All isolates were identified correctly as S. aureus or coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing with the VITEK2 system gave 99.6% correct category agreement, with 0.1% very major errors and 0.3% minor errors among S. aureus isolates, and 97.4% correct category agreement, with 0.9% very major errors and 1.7% minor errors among CNS isolates. The results suggested that direct identification and susceptibility testing is sufficiently accurate for immediate reporting.