Performance evaluation of the verigene gram-positive and gram-negative blood culture test for direct identification of bacteria and their resistance determinants from positive blood cultures in Hong Kong

Kit Hang Siu, Jonathan H.K. Chen, T. K. Ng, Rodney A. Lee, Kitty S.C. Fung, Sabrina W.C. To, Barry K.C. Wong, Sherman Cheung, Ivan W.F. Wong, Marble M.P. Tam, Swing S.W. Lee, W. C. Yam

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: A multicenter study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic performance and the time to identifcation of the Verigene Blood Culture Test, the BC-GP and BC-GN assays, to identify both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and their drug resistance determinants directly from positive blood cultures collected in Hong Kong. Methods and Results: A total of 364 blood cultures were prospectively collected from four public hospitals, in which 114 and 250 cultures yielded Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and were tested with the BC-GP and BC-GN assay respectively. The overall identification agreement for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria were 89.6%and 90.5% in monomicrobial cultures and 62.5% and 53.6%in polymicrobial cultures, respectively. The sensitivities for most genus/species achieved at least 80% except Enterococcus spp. (60%), K.oxytoca (0%), K.pneumoniae (69.2%), whereas the specificities for all targets ranged from 98.9% to 100%. Of note, 50% (7/14) cultures containing K.pneumoniae that were missed by the BCGN assay were subsequently identified as K.variicola. Approximately 5.5% (20/364) cultures contained non-target organisms, of which Aeromonas spp. accounted for 25% and are of particular concern. For drug resistance determination, the Verigene test showed 100% sensitivity for identification of MRSA, VRE and carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter, and 84.4% for ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae based on the positive detection of mecA, vanA, blaOXAand blaCTXMrespectively. Conclusion: Overall, the Verigene test provided acceptable accuracy for identification of bacteria and resistance markers with a range of turnaround time 40.5 to 99.2 h faster than conventional methods in our region.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0139728
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume10
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2015

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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