Analytical methods for the characterization and diagnosis of infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa: A critical review

An Overview of Healthcare Associated Infections and Their Detection Methods Caused by Pathogen Bacteria in Romania and Europe

“…Conventional methods for the detection of pathogenic bacteria are based on bacterial culture and involve several steps: sample preparation, enrichment, dilution, plating, enumeration, and isolation of single species colonies on selective media for further characterization [ 116 ]. Besides the long analysis time and laborious steps, the conventional methods have other limitations that make these methods inappropriate for field applications or situations that require immediate results: the need for special analysis conditions (temperature, light), low specificity compared to other methods, and the need for considerable quantities of consumables and qualified personnel [ 128 ]. Despite these limitations, classical methods are still the most widely used tests in routine laboratories to identify bacteria, including those that produce HAI.…”

“…Chromogenic agars, which contain antibiotics that allow only the development of resistant bacteria, represent an adaptation of the traditional culture methods and are increasingly used for the detection of several bacteria in clinical laboratories. This new generation of media represents a sensitive, convenient, and relatively low-cost method for identifying the pathogens based on a color reaction produced in the bacterial culture, with a shorter turnaround time [ 117 , 125 , 128 , 129 , 130 ]. Some examples of commercially available chromogenic agars for bacteria involved in HAI are presented in Table 5 .…”

“…Isothermal amplification techniques, such as LAMP methods, are novel gene amplification methods increasingly used in the specific detection of bacteria. These techniques present some advantages over PCR methods: shorter analysis time, ease of use, inexpensive running costs, higher specificity, and sensitivity, but they have a complicated design, requiring the use of at least four primers and it is also difficult to develop multiplex tests using these methods [ 117 , 128 ].…”

“…The possibility of the use of nanomaterials to increase the sensitivity of the detection method is another advantage of the biosensors. However, the complexity of the matrix can negatively influence the detection of bacteria directly from real samples, the optimization of the sensor being a very important step in its development and requiring a long time [ 128 , 133 , 134 , 135 ].…”

“…ICA strips also have the advantage of portability and can be used to detect bacteria in the field. However, these methods have lower sensitivity compared to other methods, such as molecular methods, are sensitiveto temperature and pH changes due to the low antibody stability and work best in the absence of interfering molecules in the samples [ 116 , 120 , 128 ].…”