Identification of Staphylococcus species directly from positive blood culture broth by use of molecular and conventional methods.

We compared two real-time PCR assays (both by the use of melting curve analysis) for their ability to identify Staphylococcus species directly from 200 positive blood culture bottles. The PCR assays correctly identified 83% to 94% of the Staphylococcus isolates to species clusters. Molecular testing significantly outperformed commercially available latex tests (sensitivity for both latex tests, <15%) when it was used directly with broth from signal-positive blood cultures.