[Assessment of the CromoCen ENT chromogenic medium for clinical diagnosis of Enterococcus species].

Introduction: The frequent incidence of Enterococci at hospitals and their growing antimicrobial resistance worldwide make the in-hospital surveillance and control a pressing need; consequently, it is indispensable to avail of more sensitive and accurate diagnostic means.

Objective: To broaden the evaluation of functionality of CromoCen ENT chromogenic medium for the isolation and identification of Enterococcus spp. from clinical samples.

Methods: One hundred and fifty clinical samples were analyzed (urine, blood, feces, vaginal smears, skin lesion exudates and exudates from catheters) in the January-April period, 2010 by using the chromogenic medium and the corresponding conventional culture media as controls; the incidence of Enterococcus spp was evaluated. The isolations were identified with 12 biochemical tests. From the biochemical identification data, it was possible to determine the quality indicators for both CromoCen ENT and the reference media.

Results: The chromogenic medium encouraged the growth of Enterococcus species in 24 hours, allowing their easy recognition due to the pink coloration of the colonies. The diagnostic quality indicator values were over 95%. The highest percentage of isolates was observed in the urine samples. Enterococcus faecalis was the mostly found species.

Conclusions: CromoCen ENT allowed quick and accurate identification of Enterococcus spp. from various clinical samples.