A new chromogenic agar medium, chromID VRE, to screen for vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis

Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2007 Dec;59(4):477-9. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2007.06.018. Epub 2007 Sep 21.

Abstract

We compared the performance of a chromogenic agar medium chromID VRE (bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France) designed to recover and identify vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from clinical specimens with bile esculin azide vancomycin (BEAV) agar. For this study, 120 stool specimens were plated on chromID VRE and BEAV and examined after 24 and 48 h. At 24 h, the sensitivity and specificity were as follows: BEAV, 90.2% and 73%, respectively; chromID VRE, 86.3% and 100.0%, respectively. Furthermore, we determined that the sensitivity and specificity of chromID VRE for Enterococcus faecium were 85.4% and 100%, respectively, and for Enterococcus faecalis, 90% and 100%, respectively. We conclude that chromID VRE provides an equivalent sensitivity for the recovery of VRE from stool specimens, with improved specificity, and the added advantage of providing differentiation between vancomycin-resistant E. faecium and E. faecalis.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study
  • Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

  • Agar
  • Bacterial Typing Techniques
  • Chromogenic Compounds / metabolism*
  • Culture Media*
  • Enterococcus faecalis / drug effects
  • Enterococcus faecalis / isolation & purification*
  • Enterococcus faecium / drug effects
  • Enterococcus faecium / isolation & purification*
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Humans
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Vancomycin Resistance*

Substances

  • Chromogenic Compounds
  • Culture Media
  • Agar