Comparison of identification methods of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in MALDI-TOF MS, Vitek 2 and API 20 STREP

Summary Introduction. From the clinical point of view, differentiation of the following species in the ge- nus Enterococcus is the most important: E. faecium and E. faecalis (responsible for over 90% of all enterococcal infections) and E. gallinarum, E. casseliflavus, E. flavescens due to their resis- tance to low concentrations of vancomycin (VanC phenotype). During research of enterococci strains resistant to vancomycin (VRE), we are observed some of those strains isolated from clinical specimens from hospitalized patients were identified by systems based on biochemical identification: Vitek ®