Comparative Study between the Vitek2 and the API 20 Strept Regarding the Identification of Medically Relevant <i>Streptococci</i>

Abstract Background Streptococci are gram-positive bacteria that are incriminated in many healthcare and community-acquired infections worldwide. Accurate identification of the organism to the species level is important to determine the pathogenic potential of individual species and monitor trends in antimicrobial susceptibility and emerging infections. Aim and Objectives In the present work we aimed to compare between the Vitek2 GP ID cards and the API® rapid ID20 Strept regarding the identification of medically relevant Streptococci. Methods This was a Cross-sectional descriptive study that was carried out at the Central Microbiology Laboratory, Clinical Pathology Department, Ain Shams University Hospitals during the period between August 2021 and February 2022. A Total 50 Medically relevant isolates of Streptococci recovered from different clinical samples were subjected to species identification using The API® rapid ID20 Strept and the VITEK® 2 system using the GP ID card. Results A statistically excellent agreement (%) = 45/50 = 90%; Disagreement (%) = 5/50= 10% was observed between VITEK® 2 system and the API® rapid ID20 Strept method regarding the identification results of the Streptococci spp. with (k = 0.90 and p-value &amp;lt;0.001). Conclusion VITEK® 2 as an automated system provides very good and trustable accuracy and has dominate advantages in identification time as compared to manual API microsystems in clinical lab.