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Evaluation of GeneOhm VanR and Xpert vanA/vanB molecular assays for the rapid detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci

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Abstract

Rapid diagnosis is critical for treating and preventing infections due to vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). We assessed the performance of GeneOhm VanR and Xpert vanA/vanB assays that detect vanA and vanB, the two most important genes encoding vancomycin resistance, utilizing 50 stool samples from renal dialysis patients, as well as well-characterized VRE strains. Stool samples were screened for the presence of VRE by culture followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of van genes in isolates. Furthermore, the direct detection of vanA/vanB from aerobically and anaerobically pre-enriched stools was performed by in-house PCR sequencing. GeneOhm was less sensitive (43.5% vs. 73.9%) and more specific (100% vs. 92.6%) than Xpert in detecting vanA from stool samples. vanB detection by GeneOhm was more sensitive than Xpert (100% vs. 87.5%), but equally non-specific (20.6% vs. 14.7%). A further estimation on log-serial dilutions of VRE strains showed that Xpert was more sensitive at detecting VRE at low concentrations (10–100 colony forming units [cfu]/ml).

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Acknowledgments

We thank BD Diagnostics and Cepheid for providing the test kits and recommendations for testing strains and patient samples.

Conflict of interest statement

S.M.-K. has received a speaker’s honorarium from BD Diagnostics. We declare no conflict of interest.

Financial support

This work and M.G. are supported by funding from the European Community (MOSAR network contract LSHP-CT-2007-037941; InTopSens network contract FP7-ICT-2007-223932).

Role of the funding source

The sponsors of the study had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.

Disclosure of results at a meeting

Part of this work was presented at the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), Boston, MA, USA, September 12–15, 2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Reference Centre for Enterococcus spp., Department of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium

    M. Gazin, C. Lammens & H. Goossens

  2. National Reference Centre for Enterococcus spp., Department of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, Universiteit Antwerpen, S3, Universiteitsplein 1, Campus Drie Eiken, Wilrijk, Antwerp, 2610, Belgium

    S. Malhotra-Kumar

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  1. M. Gazin
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  2. C. Lammens
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  3. H. Goossens
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  4. S. Malhotra-Kumar
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on behalf of the MOSAR WP2 Study Team

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Correspondence to S. Malhotra-Kumar.

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Gazin, M., Lammens, C., Goossens, H. et al. Evaluation of GeneOhm VanR and Xpert vanA/vanB molecular assays for the rapid detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 31, 273–276 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-011-1306-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-011-1306-y

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