In this study, we evaluated the performance of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for the typing of both methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) isolates in comparison with spa typing, as well as outbreak analysis of MRSA isolates in comparison with spa typing and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). FTIR spectroscopy can be used to detect phenotypic variation of S. aureus isolates sharing the same spa type, which could be used as screening to detect possible new circulating MRSA and MSSA strains. We were able to infer clinically meaningful information on the relatedness of MRSA isolates for outbreak management with FTIR, which showed good concordance to WGS-based typing. Although 2 out of 13 MRSA isolates were erroneously clustered in a principal component analysis, no false-negative clustering was observed. FTIR spectroscopy continues to show promise as an emerging and cost-effective strain typing tool for both MRSA and MSSA isolates.
Silvola et al. (Tue,) studied this question.