A rapid 15-minute multiplex immunoassay for the detection and differentiation of the five most common carbapenemases is now available in the US after Hardy Diagnostics and the French biomedical manufacturing company NG Biotech have teamed up. Hardy Diagnostics will now be the authorized distributor of the NG-Test® CARBA 5 in vitro diagnostic assay.

Samples are taken from either stool, urine or a biological sample are then put onto a selective medium, TSA for instance, and then incubated for 18-24 hours. The samples are taken from the media and 100 µL is added to the CARBA5 stick. A result is shown (very much like a pregnancy test) positive if any of the enzymes are detected from the cultures of Enterobacterales and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The detection of the big five carbapenemases producers has proved difficult in the past. And, sometimes an isolate might be susceptible to a carbapenem based antimicrobial but therapeutically it doesn’t work.  Rapid molecular methods have been developed and which are quite accurate, however, these methods are expensive and require multiple tests to be carried out simultaneously.