Brief communication Young Ah Kim Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea Corresponding to Young Ah Kim, E-mail: yakim@nhimc.or.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2024;27(4):267-270. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2024.27.4.6Received on 25 August 2024, Revised on 24 October 2024, Accepted on 10 November 2024, Published on 20 December 2024.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.This is an Open Access article which is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Abstract Enterobacter species were isolated from the sputum of an 84-year-old female patient with fever, chills, cellulitis in the right elbow, and pyogenic arthritis in the left shoulder. The bacteria were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). This strain was defined as a carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) by the MicroScan NG MIC 44 panel without applying the revised guidelines of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency properly. MALDI-TOF

Original article Seo Young Hwang, Young Kwan Lim, Kye Won Choe, Young ho Choi, Mi-Kyung Lee Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Mi-Kyung Lee, E-mail: cpworld@cau.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2024;27(3):185-196. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2024.27.3.6Received on 2 February 2024, Revised on 8 September 2024, Accepted on 9 September 2024, Published on 20 September 2024.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.This is an Open Access article which is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Abstract Background: As most Candida species cause opportunistic infections, it is helpful for patient care to determine species name of Candida spp. and their distribution in both sterile and non-sterile specimens. We aimed to investigate trends in the distribution of Candida species isolated from a hospital in Korea, along with their antifungal susceptibilities and seasonal variations. Methods: This study was conducted at the Chung-Ang University Hospital and included 8,760 different clinical specimens from

Original article Seungtaek Lim, Seunghwan Seol, Eun Jeong Won, Bosung Park, Heungsup Sung, Mi-Na Kim Department of Laboratory Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Mi-Na Kim, E-mail: mnkim@amc.seoul.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2024;27(3):205-214. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2024.27.3.4Received on 13 August 2024, Revised on 30 August 2024, Accepted on 3 September 2024, Published on 20 September 2024.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.This is an Open Access article which is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Abstract Background: Unlike the Mycoplasma IST2 kit (bioMérieux), the Mycoplasma IST3 kit has been updated to comply with the standardized antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) method for Ureaplasma spp. (Up) and Mycoplasma hominis (Mh). We aimed to verify the use of the Mycoplasma IST3 kit for genital mycoplasma cultures. Methods: From September 2023 to January 2024, the R1 medium remaining after inoculation with IST2 was refrigerated until the next

Review article Jin-Hee Han, Eun-Taek Han Department of Medical Environmental Biology and Tropical Medicine, Kangwon National University School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea Corresponding to Eun-Taek Han, E-mail: ethan@kangwon.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2024;27(3):155-170. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2024.27.3.2Received on 31 July 2024, Revised on 14 August 2024, Accepted on 16 August 2024, Published on 9 September 2024.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.This is an Open Access article which is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Abstract Recent advancements in malaria diagnostics have revolutionized the detection and management of this deadly disease. From traditional microscopy to rapid diagnostic tests and currently, to cutting-edge molecular techniques, such as isothermal amplification and different types of polymerase chain reactions, significant progress has been witnessed in enhancing the sensitivity, specificity, and accessibility of diagnostic tools. These innovations have enabled rapid and more accurate detection of malarial parasites, especially in regions with limited

Original article Hae-Gyeong Baek1, Hyun-Mi Ko2, Myung-Hee Lee1 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kwangju Christian Hospital, Gwangju, 2Dental Science Research Institute, Department of Oral Anatomy, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. Corresponding to Myung-Hee Lee, E-mail: purunee0820@naver.com Ann Clin Microbiol 2020;23(4):201-210. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.4.5Received on 8 October 2020, Revised on 3 November 2020, Accepted on 2 December 2020, Published on 20 December 2020.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: Respiratory specimens subjected to mycobacterial detection were initially pre-treated with N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) to remove the mucus and normal flora. Next, they were washed and neutralized with phosphate-buffered solution (PBS). The effectiveness of distilled water (DW) compared to PBS as a washing neutralizer during identification of mycobacteria was evaluated in this study. Methods: We analyzed the results of mycobacterial test conducted at a general hospital in Gwangju from October 2016 to September 2018. PBS and DW were used as a

Original article Changseung Liu1*, Eunjung Lee2*, Dokyun Kim1, Seok Hoon Jeong1 1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Research Institute of Bacterial Resistance, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 2Department of Clinical Pathology, Sangji University College of Science, Wonju, Korea *These authors contributed equally to this work. Corresponding to Dokyun Kim, E-mail: kyunsky@yuhs.ac Ann Clin Microbiol 2020;23(3):135-148. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.3.3Received on 31 January 2020, Revised on 10 April 2020, Accepted on 10 April 2020, Published on 20 September 2020.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: We evaluated the performance of ASTA MicroIDSys (ASTA, Korea) and Bruker Biotyper (Bruker Daltonics, Germany) systems in the identification of bacterial isolates from clinical microbiology laboratory specimens during the study period. In addition, species for which the identification accuracy using MALDI-TOF MS systems was previously reported to be poor were also identified by comparing the MS results with those obtained using molecular identification. Methods: A total of