Performance of the new VITEK 2 GP card for identification of medically relevant gram-positive cocci in a routine clinical laboratory.

The VITEK 2 gram-positive (GP) identification card (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) has been redesigned to achieve greater accuracy in the identification of gram-positive cocci. A total of 43 biochemical tests, including 17 enzymatic tests, are present in the card and interpreted in a kinetic mode, for up to 8 h. The VITEK 2 database, used in conjunction with the GP identification card, allows the identification of 115 different taxa. A total of 364 strains of GP cocci (217 Streptococcaceae strains and 147 Micrococcaceae strains) belonging to 31 taxa were tested with the new VITEK 2 GP identification card. Of the 364 strains, 105 were taken from routine primary plating media. A total of 344 strains (94.5%) were correctly identified to the species level and 17 strains (4.7%) were identified with low discrimination, requiring additional tests, whereas 1 strain (0.3%) was incorrectly identified and 2 strains (0.5%) remained unidentified. Within 7 h of the start of incubation, more than 90% of all strains were identified. Of the 105 primary cultures, 97% were correctly identified to the species level, 2% were identified with low discrimination, and 1% remained unidentified. Identification performance data were independent of each of the three plating media used. It is concluded that the new VITEK 2 GP identification card provides reliable results for the identification of GP cocci under routine laboratory conditions.