Enhanced recovery, enrichment and detection of Mycobacterium marinum with the Portable Microbe Enrichment Unit (PMEU)

Elias Hakalehto; Anneli Heitto; Lauri Heitto; Kari Rissanen; Ilkka Pesola; Jouni Pesola

doi:10.1016/j.pathophys.2014.07.005

Enhanced recovery, enrichment and detection of Mycobacterium marinum with the Portable Microbe Enrichment Unit (PMEU)

Pathophysiology. 2014 Sep;21(3):231-5. doi: 10.1016/j.pathophys.2014.07.005. Epub 2014 Aug 4.

Authors

Elias Hakalehto¹, Anneli Heitto², Lauri Heitto³, Kari Rissanen², Ilkka Pesola⁴, Jouni Pesola⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, 70210 Kuopio, Finland; Finnoflag Oy, P.O. Box 262, 70101 Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Finnoflag Oy, P.O. Box 262, 70101 Kuopio, Finland.
³ Environmental Research of Savo-Karjala, Kuopio, Finland.
⁴ Viiskulma Dental Clinic, Kuopio, Finland.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

PMID: 25156813
DOI: 10.1016/j.pathophys.2014.07.005

Abstract

The use of PMEU significantly accelerated the growth of otherwise slowly growing Mycobacterium sp. Compared to the static reference cultures, M. marinum was detected after 24-48h of cultivation in the PMEU Spectrion(®) equipped with infrared (IR) sensors. Parallel static cultures did not exhibit or indicate mycobacterial growth within these time limits, and essentially no growth was found in them. The PMEU approach could provide a powerful tool for the rapid diagnosis and determination of environmental and clinical isolates of slow-growing species of mycobacteria. This approach also provides a method for improving diagnostics for M. tuberculosis and other pathogenic mycobacteria, including their antibiotic resistant forms, which represents a significant health problem worldwide and in Africa in particular.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Early diagnosis; Environmental mycobacteria; Field microbiology; Infection; MDR; PMEU; Rapid microbiology; Slow-growing mycobacteria; Tuberculosis; XDR.