Cepheid Have released in Europe the Xpert™ MRSA/SA-Blood Cultures (BC) and Xpert™ MRSA/SA-Skin and Soft Tissue Infection (SSTI) tests as European CE IVD Mark products under the European Directive on In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices.

The tests are designed to enable simultaneous rapid detection of two leading causes of hospital and community acquired infections -- MRSA and S. aureus -- directly from blood cultures and soft tissue infection samples respectively.

Both the Xpert MRSA/SA-SSTI and Xpert MRSA/SA-BC products deliver results in approximately 50 minutes, thereby enabling healthcare professionals to rapidly determine the presence or absence of MRSA and S. aureus with a single test. In addition, both products employ a multiplex molecular protocol for potentially avoiding clinical false-positive MRSA results.

"By analyzing positive blood cultures, we found the Xpert MRSA/SA test to be very reliable for rapid DNA-based detection and identification of S.aureus and MRSA bacteremia." said Professor Marc Struelens of the Catholic University Hospital, Brussels and Head of the Belgian Staphylococcal Reference Laboratory.