Korean J Clin Pathol.  2000 Jun;20(3):314-319.

Identification of Vibrio vulnificus by the Vitek GNI+ Card

• Youn M
• Kim KJ
• Shin JH
• Suh SP
• Ryang DW

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Vibrio vulnificus sepsis, a highly fatal and relatively common disease in Korea, requires rapid bacteriological diagnosis for optimal management of the patient. The Vitek GNI+ card(bioMerieux Vitek. Inc., MO., USA) has been introduced to accomplish more accurate and more rapid reporting for gram-negative bacilli identification. The present study evaluated the ability of the Vitek GNI+ card to identify the species of V. vulnificus.
METHODS
A total 103 strains of V. vulnificus isolated from clinical specimens in Chonnam University Hospital during 1986-1999, were tested. Identification of GNI+ card was carried out in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturer, except the suspension medium of 0.85% NaCl rather than the original concentration of 0.45%. Additional tests for growth on TCBS, salt tolerance, and the antimicrobial susceptibility to colistin were also performed.
RESULTS
At the completion of the appropriate incubation period, the GNI+ system correctly identified 96.1%(99 strains) of the total isolates. The misidentification rate for the GNI+ system was 3.9%(4 strains) of the total isolates. The misidentified organisms were confirmed to V. vulnificus by the additional tests. The average time to identify the organisms by GNI+ System was 6.8 +/- 1.4 hour. Total 103 isolates could be separated into 24 different bionumber types in Vitek system.
CONCLUSION
This results indicate that Vitek GNI+ card is adequate for the identification of clinical isolates of V. vulnificus within several hours, but additional tests should be performed for a few isolates misidentified by the Vitek GNI+ card.

Keyword

Vibrio vulnificus; Vitek GNI+; Identification

MeSH Terms

Colistin
Diagnosis
Humans
Jeollanam-do
Korea
Salt-Tolerance
Sepsis
Vibrio vulnificus*
Vibrio*
Colistin