Several years ago, there was an article in the Journal of Clinical
Microbiology that described using lysostaphin to rapidly diagnose S.
aureus from blood cultures. Basically, two slides were prepared with one
receiving lysostaphin treatment (a lysostaphin level < 5 mcg/ml was used
as S. aureus is very susceptible to lysostaphin). A gram stain was
performed on both and if there was substantial clearing of the cocci in
the treated slide, then a presumptive id of S. aureus was reported. Of
course, CNS can interfere but the level of lysostaphin was chosen to
reduce this. Might be worth a look...jlw
