Identification of bacteria from aerobic and anaerobic blood cultures after short cultivation by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry
Abstract
Timely identification of bacterial agents that cause invasive bloodstream infections is of crucial importance. These clinical conditions require early and appropriate antibiotic intervention to prevent their progress into life-threatening septicaemia.
Blood culture remains a gold standard technique for detection of bloodstream pathogens; however, its inherent time delay drives clinical microbiology laboratories to find methodological alternatives to speed up the whole process. PCR-based techniques are increasingly utilized for early diagnosis, but their application in detecting bacteria directly from blood is currently limited, mostly due to unresolved diagnostic accuracy and high costs.
Recently, bacterial identification was accelerated tremendously by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. We aimed to develop an easy-to-implement MALDI-TOF-based method for identification of positive blood cultures that would substantially reduce the time interval between blood culture signalling and definitive bacterial identification.