Duplex Enzymatic Recombinase Amplification Assay Coupled with Lateral Flow Dipstick for Rapid Identification of Methicillin-Resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

46 clinical isolates, 28 <i>nuc</i>-carrying and 18 <i>nuc</i>-negative isolates, and 23 <i>mecA</i>-carrying and 23 <i>mecA</i>-negative isolates were subjected to a developed duplex isothermal enzymatic recombinase amplification assay accompanied by a lateral flow assay (ERA-LFA) method for methicillin-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (MRSA) detection. Additionally, 57 positive blood culture samples from patients were evaluated for preliminary testing. The sensitivity and specificity among the 46 clinical samples were 100% (28/28) and 88.9% (16/18), respectively, for <i>nuc</i> detection, and 100.0% (23/23 and 23/23) for <i>mecA</i> detection. For the 57 positive blood culture bottles, the ERA-LFA provided 100.0% (34/34) sensitivity and 95.7% (22/23) specificity for <i>nuc</i> detection and 96.5% specificity (55/57) for <i>mecA</i> detection. The detection limits of the ERA-LFA for the <i>nuc</i> and <i>mecA</i> genes were 1 and 10 CFU/reaction, respectively.