Maldi in infection control (VRE)

Abstract

The burden of multiresistant organisms in Australian hospitals continues to increase. In many facilities the optimum management of multi-resistant organism is limited by limitations on resources and budgetary constraints. Despite recent advances in molecular diagnostics, often cost is prohibitive or facilities are not available so many laboratories rely on phenotypic methods which take a considerable amount of time. Mass spectrometry by MALDI-TOF is now a well validated and widely implemented method for rapid and accurate organism identification. Although the number of organisms in the proprietary databases continues to expand, the determination of antibiotic resistance by mass spectrometry is still not widely implemented. Here I will report on a validated published method for the rapid accurate identification of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) with MALDI-TOF MS and discuss other recent advances in the detection of antibiotic resistance by mass spectrometry and the possible infection control implications of this method.