[Evaluation of a new latex agglutination test for identification of staphylococcus aureus].

286 clinical isolates of staphylococci and 19 Micrococcus spp. were tested in a new latex agglutinating test to detect bound coagulase and protein A simultaneously. Coagulase-positive strains of staphylococci (n = 119) were all found to be latex-positive. Negative latex agglutination test results were obtained with 154 out of 167 coagulase-negative strains, the other 13 (7.8%) strains gave positive latex tests. Furthermore 3 out of 19 Micrococcus strains yielded positive agglutinating results. According to the results presented a negative latex test allows a rapid exclusion of S. aureus. A positive latex test requires the determination of further typical characteristics to differentiate among the staphylococcal isolates.