Direct Identification of Bacteria in Positive Blood Culture Bottles by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

PLOS ONE, November 2009

19946369

Bernard La Scola, Didier Raoult

With long delays observed between sampling and availability of results, the usefulness of blood cultures in the context of emergency infectious diseases has recently been questioned. Among methods that allow quicker bacterial identification from growing colonies, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry was demonstrated to accurately identify bacteria routinely isolated in a clinical biology laboratory. In order to speed up the identification process, in the present work we attempted bacterial identification directly from blood culture bottles detected positive by the automate.