Clinical application of a rapid microbiological test based on capillary zone electrophoresis to assess local skin infection.

Background: The basic clinical problem associated with infection treatment is the fact that classic, commonly and routinely used isolation and identification methods are based on long-term processes of a phenotypic analysis of microorganisms. Consequently sometimes, especially in small centres, rapid implementation of antibacterial treatment becomes delayed.The work presents the initial results of rapid microbiological identification based on an original method of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The study involved the analysis of 78 biological samples from post-operative wounds and trophic ulcers.

Results: The attempt was made to identify individual bacterial species based on characteristic features of electropherograms achieved. Finally, G(+) cocci type bacteria and different G(-) rods were identified with sensitivity of 88.1% and specificity of 100%.

Conclusions: Based on the clinical trials using an electrophoretic technique in the field of microbiological diagnostics of infected exudate from a post-operative wound it can be concluded that it is a rapid and relatively sensitive method for initial identification of infectious pathogens.