Comparison of two invitro phenotypic methods (Tissue Culture plate and Congo Red Agar) for Detection of Biofilm Formation by Enterococci

Document Type : New and original researches in the field of Microbiology.

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Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University

Abstract

Background, Enterococci are Gram-positive bacteria that cause serious nosocomial infections. Bacteria tend to live in a community-like assembly called biofilm. Biofilm production aids bacterial virulence through numerous pathogenic mechanisms. Objective, our aim was to Assess the ability of Enterococci to form a biofilm and to compare two in vitro phenotypic methods for detection of Enterococcal biofilm formation. Methodology, we used 50 identified enterococcal isolates from clinical specimens to detect biofilm formation by tissue culture plate method (TCP) and Congo red agar method (CRA) then we compared the results of both methods. Results, we found that 64% of the isolates were able to form biofilm by TCP method while 38% were positive by CRA method. Congo red agar failed to detect 50% of the positive isolates detected by tissue culture plate method with a sensitivity (40.62%) and a specificity (66.67%). Conclusion, we concluded from our study that TCP is the most reliable method to detect biofilm forming bacteria when compared with CRA method.

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