Comparative evaluation of the Vitek-2 Compact and Phoenix systems for rapid identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing directly from blood cultures of Gram-negative and Gram-positive isolates

We performed a comparative evaluation of the Vitek-2 Compact and Phoenix systems for direct identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) from positive blood culture bottles in comparison to the standard methods. Overall, 139 monomicrobial blood cultures, comprising 91 Gram-negative and 48 Gram-positive isolates, were studied. Altogether, 100% and 92.3% of the Gram-negative isolates and 75% and 43.75% of the Gram-positive isolates showed concordant identification between the direct and the standard methods with Vitek and Phoenix, respectively. AST categorical agreements of 98.7% and 99% in Gram-negative and of 96.2% and 99.5% in Gram-positive isolates with Vitek and Phoenix, respectively, were observed. In conclusion, direct inoculation procedures for Gram-negative isolates showed an excellent performance with both automated systems, while for identification of Gram-positive isolates they proved to be less reliable, although Vitek provided acceptable results. This approach contributes to reducing the turnaround time to result of blood cultures, with a positive impact on patient care.