NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BioMérieux said today that it has received a CE mark for a database and reagent kits for the identification of mycobacteria, Nocardia, and molds using its VITEK MS clinical microbiology system.
The additions comprise 297 new species, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 45 species of commonly seen non-tuberculous mycobacteria, and 48 medically important molds, the company said.
According to BioMériex, the VITEK MS, which uses MALDI mass spec-based proteomics to identify organisms, improves the speed and reliability with which clinicians can ID these pathogens, which can take days or weeks to identify using conventional methods.
With the addition, the VITEK MS database now allows for the identification of 1,046 species representing 15,172 distinct strains of bacteria, yeasts, and molds.