Applicability of an in-house saponin-based extraction method in Bruker Biotyper matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry system for identifying bacterial and fungal species in positively flagged pediatric VersaTREK blood cultures.

Background/purpose: Early identification of pathogens causing bloodstream infection (BSI) is critical for prompt administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Methods: We used an in-house saponin-based extraction method to evaluate the performance of Bruker Biotyper MALDI-TOF MS system (MALDI Biotyper) for bacterial and fungal identification in 2013 positively-flagged VersaTREK blood culture bottles.

Results: A total of 180 monomicrobial and 23 polymicrobial positive blood cultures were investigated.

Evaluation of the automated Becton Dickinson MAX real-time PCR platform for detection of Pneumocystis jirovecii.

Aim: We evaluated the performance of the automated quantitative BD MAX (Becton Dickinson) real-time PCR platform for detecting Pneumocystis jirovecii.

Materials & Methods: A total of 34 retrospective and 137 prospective samples were included.

Results: Retrospectively, all (100%) positive samples were correctly detected by this platform compared with a nested PCR.