ArticleAnnals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials2023
Development of a workflow for the detection of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis from rectal swabs using the spectra VRE medium.
Article in Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci: Screening Efficacy and the Risk of Bloodstream Infections in a Specialized Healthcare Setting.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- "Keeping us on our toes": a review of what clinicians need to know about vancomycin-variableAntimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSpectra™ VRE agar (Remel, Lenexa, KS) is a chromogenic agar that is FDA approved for screening patients for VRE colonization. The package insert recommends confirming isolates with identification and susceptibility testing, but confirming every culture delays time to result. Given the agar's historic high specificity for E. faecium isolates, we theorized the agar could be utilized as a stand-alone screening to minimize reagents and time.
aimOur laboratory sought to develop a workflow to optimize the use of the medium.
methodsWe plated 3,815 rectal swabs to the Spectra VRE agar and compared results to traditional identification and susceptibility testing.
resultsDark blue or purple colonies on the agar demonstrated a sensitivity of 98% and specificity of 85% for detection of VRE faecium, but light blue colonies were significantly less specific for E. faecalis.
conclusionsWe streamlined our workflow to accept dark blue or purple colonies as VRE faecium and plan to perform additional testing only on light blue colonies. Interestingly, higher quantity of growth increased the accuracy of the agar. In the future, growth quantity may be used to further streamline the workflow once more data is obtained.
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Registered trials
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