Chromogenic media for MRSA diagnostics

For the past decade, a number of chromogenic media for methicillin-resistance Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) detection have been developed and applied, including Oxoid Brilliance TM MRSA, CHROMagar TM MRSA, BBL TM CHROMagar TM MRSA, MRSASelect and chromID MRSA. The advantages of these chromogenic media offers direct detection of visible staphylococcal colonies, coupled with the use of chromogenic enzymatic substrates that can be hydrolyzed by S. aureus to confirm species or strain identification. BBL TM CHROMagar TM MRSA and MRSASelect are designed for detection of nasal colonization by MRSA, while CHROMagar TM MRSA, Oxoid Brilliance TM MRSA and chromID MRSA are readily applied in bacterial screening. This review summarizes the characteristics, principles and capacities of these selective media, and focuses on comparison of different chromogenic media.