Replacement of the Double Meropenem Disc Test with a Lateral Flow Assay for the Detection of Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Clinical Laboratory Practice

The prompt detection of carbapenemases among Gram-negative bacteria isolated from patients’ clinical infection samples and surveillance cultures is important for the implementation of infection control measures. In this context, we evaluated the effectiveness of replacing phenotypic tests for the detection of carbapenemase producers with the immunochromatographic Carbapenem-Resistant K.N.I.V.O. Detection K-Set lateral flow assay (LFA). In total, 178 carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales and 32 carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated in our hospital were tested with both our established phenotypic and molecular testing procedures and the LFA. The Kappa coefficient of agreement for Enterobacterales was 0.85 (p < 0.001) and 0.6 (p < 0.001) for P. aeruginosa. No major disagreements were observed and notably, in many cases, the LFA detected more carbapenemases than the double meropenem disc test, especially regarding OXA-48 in Enterobacterales and VIM in P. aeruginosa. Overall, the Carbapenem-Resistant K.N.I.V.O. Detection K-Set was very effective and at least equivalent to the standard procedures used in our lab. However, it was much faster as it provided results in 15 min compared to a minimum of 18–24 h for the phenotypic tests.