Modified Granada Agar Medium for the detection of group B streptococcus carriage in pregnant women

Document Type

Article

Department

Obstetrics and Gynaecology (East Africa)

Abstract

Objectives

To improve the detection rate of group B streptococci (GBS) in pregnant women, aiming at the prevention of early-onset septicemia in the newborn.

Methods

The yield from culturing two sites, vaginal and anorectal, on a Modified Granada Medium (MGM) was compared with our standard approach of culturing a vaginal swab on blood agar (BA).

Results

Samples were processed from 430 consecutive pregnant women. GBS was isolated from the vagina in 11.6% with BA, and in 13.7% with MGM. In 17.0% of anorectal samples, GBSwas identified with MGM. The combination of both sites and media had a yield of 20.0%. MGM identified all but six (2%) of 310 GBS strains after aerobic incubation, with use of a cover slide, and missed only three strains (1%) after anaerobic incubation.

Conclusions

Separate culture of vaginal and anorectal samples using the same MGM agar plate resulted in an increase in detection rate for GBS of 76% as compared to BA alone. The technique is simple and results are available after overnight incubation. MGM was confirmed as a specific medium for the identification of GBS, with a sensitivity of 98–99%.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

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