Development of a test system for rapid differentiation of Neisseria and Haemophilus spp

Abstract

A qualitative micromethod (IDS Rapid NH system) employing conventional and single-substrate enzyme tests was developed for the biochemical characterization of Neisseria spp., Haemophilus spp., and other gram-negative species. A total of over 140 dehydrated, miniaturized biochemical tests were investigated for their ability to distinguish species. Computer-assisted test selection and pair separation analysis of the data allowed the selection of 11 4-h tests that would identify Haemophilus and Neisseria spp. implicated as etiological agents as well as differentiate them from other Neisseria spp., Moraxella spp., Branhamella catarrhalis, Centers for Disease Control M groups, and Kingella spp. The final test configuration included modified glucose, sucrose, galactosidase, nitrate, phosphatase, resazurin reduction, and two arylamidase tests. In addition, indole, urea, and ornithine decarboxylase tests were included to biochemically type strains of Haemophilus influenzae and Haemophilus parainfluenzae.

Evaluation of Two Commercial Kits and Arbitrarily Primed PCR for Identification and Differentiation of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans , Haemophilus aphrophilus , and Haemophilus paraphrophilus

“…The Rapid NH identification kit has a database for Haemophilus, Neisseria, and some other genera that include fastidious gram-negative bacilli, such as A. actinomycetemcomitans. Although the identification performance of the Rapid NH has been extensively studied for Haemophilus and Neisseria species (6,8,20), no data were available for the five A. actinomycetemcomitans serotypes.…”

Difficulties in differentiating Neisseria cinerea from Neisseria gonorrhoeae in rapid systems used for identifying pathogenic Neisseria species

“…cinerea strains were not included in early evaluations of the BACTEC system or other Neisseria identification methods that are based on radiometric or spectrophotometric detection of CO2 produced from sugars (9, 28). Similarly, published reports dealing with tests based on rapid carbohydrate utilization (2, 3, 7, 13, 15, 17, 21-25, 27, 28, 32-35), detection of enzymes such as PRO and gammaglutamylaminopeptidase (10,13,26,32,33), or coagglutination (1,3,4,8,11,15,20,24,26) have not described any results for N. cinerea.…”