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Background: The most common laboratory procedures to differentiate Streptococcus pneumoniae from other alpha-hemolytic streptococci are based on the optochin susceptibility test, bile solubility, and the Quellung reaction; however, these tests are time consuming and could lead to misidentifications. Consequently, it has become a challenge to correctly identify the Streptococcus mitis group.
Methods: The MALDI-TOF MS platform provides a quality and quick response for the identification at the species level for even the most challenging microorganism.
Results: However, some microorganisms are promptly identified by mass spectrometry and laboratories should be cautious of this methodology limitation when reporting those identifications. These constraints include, among others, the differentiation of S. pneumoniae from the S. mitis/oralis/pseudopneumoniae group as demonstrated by the results of this work where a specificity of 89.4% was found for S. pneumoniae isolate identification.
Conclusions: Standard protocol in analysis of peak spectra as well as database increases with new MSPs should be employed with the MALDI-TOF MS platform resulting in a good technique for identification of different Streptococcus spp.
DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2017.170619
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