Comparison of the ASTA MicroIDSys and VITEK MS matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry systems for identification of clinical bacteria and yeasts

The ASTA MicroIDSys system (ASTA, Suwon, Korea) is a newly developed Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) system for identification of microorganisms. We compared the performance of the ASTA MicroIDSys system with that of the VITEK MS system (bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) for identifying clinical microorganisms. A total 2055 isolates including 1910 bacteria and 145 yeasts were tested. Among them, the VITEK MS correctly identified 1999 (97.3%) isolates to species level and 26 (1.3%) to the genus level. The ASTA MicroIDSys correctly identified 1988 (96.7%) isolates to species level and 28 (1.4%) to the genus level. The VITEK MS and ASTA MicroIDSys misidentified one isolate and four (0.2%) isolates, respectively, and provided no identification for 29 (1.4%) and 35 (1.7%) isolates, respectively. The performance of the ASTA MicroIDSys was comparable to that of the VITEK MS for identification of clinically relevant bacterial and yeast isolates.