Use of MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonics) for identification of Mycobacterium species isolated directly from liquid medium

Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the evaluation of the use of MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis directly from liquid MGIT cultures from January 2017 to December 2017. Material/methods A total of 155 isolates (mainly respiratory) were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonics) directly from MGIT liquid medium with a previous extraction procedure. Results MALDI-TOF MS generated acceptable scores for 152 isolates (98.06%). Fifty isolates were identified as M. tuberculosis complex and the remaining 105 as NTM (M. abscessus subsp. abscessus, M. avium, M. celatum, M chelonae, M. chimaera, M. fortuitum, M. gordonae, M. intracellulare, M. kansasii, M. lentiflavum, M. mageritense, M. mucogenicum and M. xenopi). Conclusions These results indicate that MALDI-TOF MS can be useful to identify mycobacteria directly from MGIT cultures and is an accurate, rapid and cost-effective system to be used as a routine method.