1. Potential use of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy as a rapid screening tool for investigating nosocomial outbreaks of ST-80 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium.
- Author
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Wong RCW, Cheung IYY, Lai CKC, Yuk MT, Chow VCY, Leung JSL, Chau NK, Konishi LK, Lee LK, Ng ICF, Tam WY, Tong JHC, and Siu GKH
- Subjects
- Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared methods, Humans, Phylogeny, Mass Screening methods, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Disease Outbreaks, Cross Infection epidemiology, Cross Infection microbiology, Enterococcus faecium drug effects, Enterococcus faecium genetics, Enterococcus faecium isolation & purification, Enterococcus faecium classification, Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci genetics, Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci isolation & purification, Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci drug effects, Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections epidemiology, Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections microbiology
- Abstract
Background: Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is a non-genomic, spectrum-based typing technology useful for characterizing outbreaks of multidrug-resistant organisms., Aim: To assess the performance of FT-IR spectroscopy in characterizing ST-80 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREf) isolates from a nosocomial outbreak., Methods: Core-genome single-nucleotide polymorphism phylogeny was used as a reference method to characterize a nosocomial outbreak caused by ST-80 VREf. It identified 22 of 25 epidemiologically related isolates as belonging to an outbreak cluster., Findings: The use of FT-IR spectroscopy with a cluster-defining cut-off of 0.071 resulted in the correct classification of 21 out of 22 phylogenetically related isolates in a single cluster. It successfully distinguished three phylogenetically unrelated isolates from the outbreak cluster, along with five ST-80-unrelated control isolates, and five isolates from a previous outbreak in May 2023, yielding only one mischaracterized environmental isolate., Conclusion: These findings support the potential use of FT-IR spectroscopy as a rapid screening tool to assist outbreak investigations. Notably, this study is the first to focus on the performance of FT-IR spectroscopy in the epidemiological analysis of VREf isolates with the same sequence type., (Copyright © 2024 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2025
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