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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 2002, p. 1681-1686, Vol. 40, No. 5
0095-1137/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.5.1681-1686.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evaluation of the VITEK 2 System for Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Medically Relevant Gram-Positive Cocci

Marco Ligozzi, Cinzia Bernini, Maria Grazia Bonora, Maria de Fatima, Jessica Zuliani, and Roberta Fontana*

Sezione di Microbiologia, Dipartimento di Patologia, Università di Verona, 35100 Verona, Italy

Received 12 July 2001/ Returned for modification 27 September 2001/ Accepted 5 February 2002

A study was conducted to evaluate the new VITEK 2 system (bioMérieux) for identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing of gram-positive cocci. Clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus (n = 100), coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) (n = 100), Enterococcus spp. (n = 89), Streptococcus agalactiae (n = 29), and Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 66) were examined with the ID-GPC identification card and with the AST-P515 (for staphylococci), AST-P516 (for enterococci and S. agalactiae) and AST-P506 (for pneumococci) susceptibility cards. The identification comparison methods were the API Staph for staphylococci and the API 20 Strep for streptococci and enterococci; for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, the agar dilution method according to the procedure of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) was used. The VITEK 2 system correctly identified to the species level (only one choice or after simple supplementary tests) 99% of S. aureus, 96.5% of S. agalactiae, 96.9% of S. pneumoniae, 92.7% of Enterococcus faecalis, 91.3% of Staphylococcus haemolyticus, and 88% of Staphylococcus epidermidis but was least able to identify Enterococcus faecium (71.4% correct). More than 90% of gram-positive cocci were identified within 3 h. According to the NCCLS breakpoints, antimicrobial susceptibility testing with the VITEK 2 system gave 96% correct category agreement, 0.82% very major errors, 0.17% major errors, and 2.7% minor errors. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed category agreement from 94 to 100% for S. aureus, from 90 to 100% for CNS, from 91 to 100% for enterococci, from 96 to 100% for S. agalactiae, and from 91 to 100% for S. pneumoniae. Microorganism-antibiotic combinations that gave very major errors were CNS-erythromycin, CNS-oxacillin, enterococci-teicoplanin, and enterococci-high-concentration gentamicin. Major errors were observed for CNS-oxacillin and S. agalactiae-tetracycline combinations. In conclusion the results of this study indicate that the VITEK 2 system represents an accurate and acceptable means for performing identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests with medically relevant gram-positive cocci.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Patologia, Sezione di Microbiologia, Strada le Grazie 8, 37100 Verona, Italy. Phone: 0039-45-8028191. Fax: 0039-45-584606. E-mail: roberta.fontana{at}univr.it.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 2002, p. 1681-1686, Vol. 40, No. 5
0095-1137/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.5.1681-1686.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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Copyright © 2002 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.