Find in Library

<i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> is a dominant cause of respiratory infection in individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF), leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Detection of <i>P. aeruginosa</i> is conducted by culture of respiratory samples but this process may occasionally be compromised due to overgrowth by other bacteria and fungi. We aimed to evaluate a novel chromogenic medium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa chromogenic agar (PACA), for culture of <i>P. aeruginosa</i> from respiratory samples, from patients with CF. A total of 198 respiratory samples were cultured onto PACA and three other media: CHROMID^®<i>P. aeruginosa</i>, CHROMagar™ Pseudomonas and MacConkey agar. <i>P. aeruginosa</i> was recovered from 66 samples (33%), using a combination of all media. After 72 h incubation, the sensitivity of the four chromogenic media was as follows: 91% for PACA and CHROMagar™ Pseudomonas, 85% for CHROMID^®<i>P. aeruginosa</i> and 83% for MacConkey agar. For the three chromogenic media, the positive predictive value after 72 h was as follows: 95% for PACA, 56% for CHROMagar™ Pseudomonas and 86% for CHROMID^®<i>P. aeruginosa</i>. PACA proved to be a highly effective culture medium for the isolation and specific detection of <i>P. aeruginosa</i> from respiratory samples.