Rapid test for the detection of methicillin-resistance of staphylococci by ATP-dependent bioluminescence.

Methicillin resistance of staphylococci is a marker of multiple resistance to antimicrobial drugs. The authors present their own variant of applying ATP-dependent bioluminescence for the rapid testing of methicillin resistance. It consists in the measurements of the total bacterial ATP obtained by extraction. The authors test the method on 23 Staphylococcus strains and compare the results with those obtained by the diffusion method, the screening method with the antibiotic included in the agar and the broth dilutions method. The results obtained by ATP-dependent bioluminescence were in agreement with those obtained by broth dilutions method.