%0 Journal Article %A Torres, Ignacio %A Gimenez, Estela %A Pascual, Tania %A Bueno, Felipe %A Huntley, Dixie %A Martínez, Mireia %A Navarro, David %T Short-term incubation of positive blood cultures in brain-heart infusion broth accelerates identification of bacteria by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass-spectrometry %D 2017 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 66 %N 12 %P 1752-1758 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.000643 %K MALDI-TOF MS %K fast identification %K broth incubation %K blood cultures %K short-term incubation %I Microbiology Society, %X Purpose. Fast identification of bacteria directly from positive blood cultures (BCs) by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass-spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) can be achieved either using the MALDI Sepsityper kit (protein extraction method) or after a short-term pre-cultivation step on solid medium. We developed a new method that involves short-term enrichment of positive BCs in brain–heart infusion broth (BHI) prior to MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Methodology. Eighty-four BCs flagged as positive were included in this study; these were processed in parallel either directly using the MALDI Sepsityper kit or following a short-term culture either in BHI or on Columbia blood agar with 5 % sheep blood (CBA). Results. Bacterial species were successfully identified in 91.6, 89.2 and 65.4 % of cases after pre-cultivation for 4 h in BHI, on CBA, or by using the MALDI Sepsityper kit, respectively. Overall, the mean incubation time to correct identification was shorter when pre-cultures were performed in BHI; the mean time for Gram-negative rods was 78.2 min in BHI and 108.2 min on CBA (P=0.045), and the mean time for Gram-positive cocci was 128.5 min in BHI and 169.6 min on CBA (P=0.013). Conclusion. Short-term enrichment of BCs in BHI accelerates identification of a number of bacterial species by MALDI-TOF MS. Further prospective studies are needed to validate our method and gauge its potential clinical impact on the management of bloodstream bacterial infections. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000643