摘要
Epidemiological surveillance for microbes is currently based on either agar culture followed by identification, or genetic amplification. Both techniques are highly skilled-labor intensive, costly, and must be done in central laboratories. The Defined Substrate Utilization®(DSU®) format provides an epidemiological series of specific screening formulations that obviate these limitations. All reagents are present in optimized stable powder form in a test tube—add water, inoculate, and incubate. A specific color change provides a sensitive and specific detection of the target microbe. Two DSU®methods for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are presented: aureusAlert®for all S. aureus and EPI-M®for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Both aureusAlert®and EPI-M®had a detection level of 20 colony forming units (CFU) in 18 hours. aureusAlert®and conventional methods agreed 93.6% and EPI-M®and conventional methods agreed 94.1%. DSU®and conventional methods showed the same specificity.
Epidemiological surveillance for microbes is currently based on either agar culture followed by identification, or genetic amplification. Both techniques are highly skilled-labor intensive, costly, and must be done in central laboratories. The Defined Substrate Utilization®(DSU®) format provides an epidemiological series of specific screening formulations that obviate these limitations. All reagents are present in optimized stable powder form in a test tube—add water, inoculate, and incubate. A specific color change provides a sensitive and specific detection of the target microbe. Two DSU®methods for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are presented: aureusAlert®for all S. aureus and EPI-M®for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Both aureusAlert®and EPI-M®had a detection level of 20 colony forming units (CFU) in 18 hours. aureusAlert®and conventional methods agreed 93.6% and EPI-M®and conventional methods agreed 94.1%. DSU®and conventional methods showed the same specificity.
