One-year experience with modified BD GeneOhm MRSA assay for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from pooled nasal, skin, and throat samples.

We report our 1-year experience with modified GeneOhm MRSA assay (formerly IDI-MRSA) for pooled surveillance specimens in low methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalence clinical setting. We have successfully modified the GeneOhm MRSA assay protocol during the specimen preparation step by adding an extra washing step followed by pooling of up to 3 samples per patient (nose, skin, with or without throat) at the lysis step. The sensitivity of the modified assay compared with conventional cultivation was 94.3%, specificity 99.2%, negative predictive value 99.2%, and positive predictive value 94.3%. The modified test is reliable and performed well compared with conventional culture methods in our clinical setting with low-level prevalence of MRSA colonization. Our findings support the use of pooling of the patients samples as a cost-effective way of screening for MRSA colonization.