Comparison of the SUPERCARBA, CHROMagar KPC, and Brilliance CRE screening media for detection of Enterobacteriaceae with reduced susceptibility to carbapenems

The recently developed SUPERCARBA medium was evaluated together with 2 commercially available selective culture media containing carbapenems: CHROMagar KPC (CHROMagar) and Brilliance CRE (Oxoid, Thermofisher Scientific). A total of 142 enterobacterial isolates were tested, including 131 isolates with reduced susceptibility to carbapenems. The SUPERCARBA medium has the highest sensitivity (96.5%) (detecting virtually all carbapenemase producers including OXA-48-like producers) as compared to Brilliance CRE (76.3%) and CHROMagar KPC (43%). The specificity of the screening media was similar, ranging from 57% to 68%.