MALDI-TOF MS Versus VITEK(®)2: Comparison of Systems for the Identification of Microorganisms Responsible for Bacteremia

We evaluated the reliability and accuracy of the combined use of MALDI-TOF MS and classical ID VITEK(2) to identify monomicrobial infection in blood culture bottles. In total, 70 consecutive positive blood cultures were included in this study. Positive blood culture bottles were subjected to Gram staining and subcultured on solid media. Isolates grown from such culture media were used for classical ID using VITEK(2) system. In parallel, an aliquot was subjected to a lysing-centrifugation method and used for the identification with the MALDI-TOF system. Results evidenced the correct genus and species identification of 91.4 % of microorganisms responsible for bacteremia with an agreement to the species and the genus level. If compared with the standard method VITEK(2), our simple and cost-effective sample preparation method would be very useful for rapid identification of microorganisms using blood culture bottles. In fact, the direct method showed rapid and reliable results, especially for the gram-negative group.