Molecular epidemiology, clinical features and significance of Shiga toxin detection from routine testing of gastroenteritis specimens.

After introduction of faecal multiplex PCR that includes targets for stx1 and stx2 genes, we found stx genes were detected in 120 specimens from 111 patients over a 31-month period from 2018-2020 from a total of 14,179 separate tests performed. The proportion of stx1 only vs stx2 only vs stx1 and stx2 was 35%, 22% and 42%, respectively. There were 54 specimens which were culture positive, with 33 different serotypes identified, the predominant serotype being O157:H7 (19%).

Corynebacterium macginleyi in the era of MALDI-TOF MS: epidemiology, susceptibility patterns and prevalence of co-infection.

Corynebacterium macginleyi has long been associated with ocular infections and has more recently been rarely implicated in systemic infections. There is a paucity of literature regarding the rate of C. macginleyi co-infection with other bacterial and viral pathogens and regarding the incidence of C.

Increased diagnostic yield of routine multiplex PCR compared to clinician requested testing for detection of Trichomonas vaginalis.

Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) infection is the leading cause of non-viral sexually transmitted infection (STI) globally and is endemic in rural and remote Australia. However, current accurate prevalence data for TV in urban Australia are scarce as TV is not a notifiable infection outside of the Northern Territory (NT). This study evaluated Australian guidelines for TV testing and determined TV prevalence among patients at a large urban public hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Impact of on-site compared to off-site testing for severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on duration of isolation and resource utilization.

Rapid detection and isolation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is the only means of reducing hospital transmission. We describe the impact of implementation of on-site severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing on reducing turnaround time, isolation duration, pathology test ordering, and antibiotic use in patients who do not have COVID-19.

Clinical evaluation of AusDiagnostics SARS-CoV-2 multiplex tandem PCR assay.

Background: In the context of the pandemic, the rapid emergency use authorisation of diagnostic assays for SARS-CoV-2 has meant there are few peer-reviewed published studies of clinical performance of commercial assays.

Aims: To evaluate the clinical performance of AusDiagnostics respiratory multiplex tandem PCR assay including SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: We reviewed the results following implementation of AusDiagnostics respiratory multiplex tandem PCR assay including SARS-CoV-2, and compared with an in-house RT-PCR assay at our State Reference Laboratory.

Identification and diversity of Actinomyces species in a clinical microbiology laboratory in the MALDI-TOF MS era.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has emerged as a reliable tool for bacterial identification. This study compared the Bruker MALDI-TOF BioTyper MS (MBT) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing for the identification of Actinomyces and Actinotignum spp. The MBT identified 68/77 (88.

Respiratory virus detection and co-infection in children and adults in a large Australian hospital in 2009-2015.

Aim: This hospital network-based retrospective observational study aimed to describe the prevalence and seasonality of paediatric and adult viral respiratory pathogens and their rates of co-infections, following the introduction of a rapid multiplex molecular diagnostic assay.

Methods: All nasopharyngeal samples tested in patients presenting to Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia, from August 2009 to July 2015 by means of multiplex tandem polymerase chain reaction using the Respiratory Pathogen 12Plex kit (AusDiagnostics) were included in the analysis.

Results: There were 28 729 patient samples analysed after duplicate samples were excluded.

Bacteroides pyogenes causing serious human wound infection from animal bites.

Bacteroides pyogenes is part of the normal oral flora of domestic animals. There is one previous report of human infection, with B. pyogenes bacteremia following a cat bite (Madsen 2011).

Human Wound Infection with Mannheimia glucosida following Lamb Bite.

Mannheimia spp. are veterinary pathogens that can cause mastitis and pneumonia in domestic cattle and sheep. While Mannheimia glucosida can be found as normal flora in oral and respiratory mucosa in sheep, there have been no reported cases of human infection with this organism.

Acanthamoeba encephalitis: isolation of genotype T1 in mycobacterial liquid culture medium.

We report a case of Acanthamoeba encephalitis diagnosed from an antemortem brain biopsy specimen, where the organism was first isolated in mycobacterial liquid medium and first identified by using a sequence generated by a commercial panfungal sequencing assay. We correlate susceptibility results with clinical outcome.

Comparing the identification of Clostridium spp. by two Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry platforms to 16S rRNA PCR sequencing as a reference standard: a detailed analysis of age of culture and sample preparation.

We compared the identification of Clostridium species using mass spectrometry by two different Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) platforms (Bruker MS and Vitek MS) against 16S rRNA sequencing as the reference standard. We then examined the impact of different sample preparations and (on one of those platforms) age of bacterial colonial growth on the performance of the MALDI-TOF MS systems. We identified 10 different species amongst the 52 isolates by 16S rRNA sequencing, with Clostridium perfringens the most prevalent (n=30).

Emergence of a ribotype 244 strain of Clostridium difficile associated with severe disease and related to the epidemic ribotype 027 strain.

Background: We identified 12 patients with Clostridium difficile infection between July 2011 and March 2012 from whom an unusual C. difficile strain was isolated. This strain had a single-nucleotide deletion of the tcdC gene at position 117 and binary toxin genes, which are characteristic of the hypervirulent ribotype (RT) 027 strain.

Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens septic arthritis following puncture with a Coxspur Hawthorn thorn.

Curtobacterium species are recognized plant pathogens. We report the first well-documented case of Curtobacterium human infection, a child with septic arthritis following puncture with a Coxspur Hawthorn plant thorn. The organism isolated from synovial tissue and the plant thorn was identified as Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens by 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis.