TITLE:
Rapid Detection Tool for Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) Directly from Human Specimens
AUTHORS:
Stephen C. Edberg
KEYWORDS:
VRE, Stool, Carriage, Detection
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.4 No.12,
September
23,
2014
ABSTRACT: A new, simple, and one-step tool for the direct
detection of vancomycin-resistant Enterocococcus (VRE) EPI-V® (Pilots Point LLC, Sarasota, FL) is presented. It
contains all the ingredients in a unique stable powder form in a standard test
tube. One only needs to add water, inoculate the specimen, and incubate. Specimens
consisted of 553 sequential human rectal/perirectal swabs for VRE surveillance.
The presence of VRE was denoted by the production of two sequential color
changes corresponding to growth in bile-esculin and production of a positive
PYR reaction. The EPI-V® tool was compared to reference VRE
detection methods. EPI-V® showed a sensitivity of 102% and a specificity of 98.4% for the
detection of VRE. The EPI-V® tool offers significant advantages: no
skilled technologist time required, simple quality control, highly conserved
incubator and refrigerator space, and low cost.