Evaluation of Bio-Rad MRSASelect Agar for Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Directly from Blood Cultures

MRSASelect agar (Bio-Rad, Redmond, WA) was evaluated for its performance in detecting MRSA directly from positive blood cultures containing Gram-positive cocci in clusters. Agar plates were evaluated for the presence of pink colonies at 18 to 24 h. Results were compared to organism identification by using standard laboratory methods. Confirming coagulase on pink isolates, the sensitivity and specificity were both 99%.