Guidelines
PBP-2a Testing of Blood Cultures

PBP-2a Testing of Blood Cultures

Background

The Microbiology Lab at AdventHealth Tampa (AHT) will test all blood cultures revealing Staphyloccocus aureus for the presence of penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP-2a) using the Alere® PBP-2a Test

PBP-2a is an altered penicillin-binding protein produced by some Staphylococcal isolates that results in anti-staphyloccocal penicillin resistance (i.e. MRSA)

The following performance parameters were calculated from in-house testing of clinical specimens of patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, N=53

In Vitro studies performed by Alere® produced sensitivities of 98.1% - 99.5% (N=210) and a specificity of 98.8% (N=247)