Polymerase chain reaction-based rapid screening method is the real tool to prevent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the intensive care unit

摘要

A recently published article in Critical Care Medicine (1) highlights the usefulness of active surveillance cultures as a predictor of methicillin-resistant Staph-ylococcus aureus (MRSA) ventilator-associated pneumonia. In that article, Chan et al demonstrated that MRSA. screening should be considered as a useful tool for predicting in advance the MRSA etiology of the infection and for starting a correct empiric antimicrobial treatment. In the same journal, Toschlog and Ramsey (2) posed several interesting issues in the study by Chan and colleagues related to the low sensitivity of selective agars used as screening method (11 patients developed a MRSA ventilator-associated pneumonia with negative screening cultures) and to what would have been the impact on the screening performance if polymerase chain reaction method was used instead of active surveillance culture.