Evaluation of the ID 32E for the identification of Gram-negative glucose-fermenting and glucose-non-fermenting bacilli

Objective To evaluate the ID 32E bacterial identification system for accuracy in the identification of members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Acinetobacter baumannii/Iwoffii. Methods Stock cultures of 497 Enterobacteriaceae and 27 commonly encountered non-enteric Gram-negative rods were tested in the ID 32E system. For each isolate, the resulting 11-digit profile number was converted to an identification using the APILAB Plus software (version 3.2.2). This identification was then compared to the reference identification obtained using conventional biochemicals. Results Of the 524 isolates tested, 405 (77.3%) were identified correctly; 52 (9.9%) were identified incorrectly. Sixty-seven (12.8%) identifications were either doubtful or unacceptable, and were not limited to any particular genus or species, with the exception of Ewingella americana and Serratia plymuthica, which did not grow well enough in the strip at 35°C to be correctly identified. All five isolates of Acinetobacter Iwoffii were misidentified as Alcaligenes spp. Conclusions With this challenge set of organisms, the ID 32E correctly identified 77.3% of the isolates tested. For commonly encountered isolates, the accuracy approached 90%. We conclude that the ID 32E offers an alternative for the identification of common clinical isolates.