Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) can be used to obtain protein fingerprinting from whole bacterial cells ( 2). This is especially true in cases when patients are critically ill suffering from infectious diseases and where therapeutic intervention is urgently needed. A faster and easier technique for microbial identification would greatly enhance the conventional laboratory in providing more timely feedback to clinic. Therefore, molecular methods are not routinely used for bacterial identification.
Molecular methods, such as real-time PCR, gene sequencing and microarray analysis, are quick methods for bacterial and fungal identification, but they come at a very high cost and require highly-trained technicians.
Although all of these methods can achieve high accuracies, it usually takes minimum one day or longer to complete the whole identification process. Traditionally, bacterial and fungal identifications in clinical microbiology laboratories are mainly carried out according to phenotype characteristics, including identifications of culture media, colony morphology, gram stain and various biochemical reactions ( 1).
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