Permeabilization of bacteria including treatment with enzymatic Lysis Solution at 52+/-1°C followed by an incubation GSK2118436 ic50 in ethanol. Hybridization with DNA-molecular beacon probes was carried out in a hotplate hybridization chamber at 52+/-1°C followed by an incubation in a Stop Solution bath for 1 minute. This step ensures that all unbound beacons are pushed back into the closed conformation. Slides were dried, covered with mounting medium and evaluated under a fluorescence microscope. Two filter sets are required. One detects the probes labeled with ATTO550 (red channel, absorption max 554 nm/emission max 576 nm),

the other one those labeled with FAM (green channel, absorption max 494 nm/emission max 520 nm). Total turn-around time of the hemoFISH® assay was approximately 45 minutes (15 min of ACP-196 cell line hands-on time plus the time required for microscopic observation). The list of fluorescently labeled probes used for the strain identification is the following: Enterobacteriaceae 4SC-202 price spp., E.coli, K.pneumoniae, S.marcescens, P.mirabilis, P.vulgaris, Salmonella spp., P.aeruginosa, Acinetobacter spp., S.maltophilia, H.influenzae (for the hemoFISH G(-) Panel) and Staphylococcus spp., S.aureus, Streptococcus spp., S.pneumoniae, S.pyogenes,

S.agalactiae, C.perfringens, E.faecium, E.faecalis (for the hemoFISH G(+) Panel). The first field of the slide serves as an intrinsic control of the procedure. It contains a probe that detects most Eubacteria, giving Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase a positive signal only in the red channel. When turning to the green channel, no fluorescence should be visible. On the remaining fields, there might be pairs of probes, labeled either with FAM or ATTO 550, giving either a red or a green fluorescent signal when the specific target is encountered. If a specific target is not encountered, the unbound probes are pushed

back into the initial closed conformation and no fluorescent signal is generated. Due to the use of molecular beacons, the washing step, known to be a critical and error-prone step during the FISH procedure, can be omitted. Statistical analysis For database processing, data from BacT/ALERT 3D® and VITEK 2® system were downloaded as text files into Microsoft Excel with subsequent transfer of it into a Microsoft Access database for analysis. Final tabulation of TAT was performed using Access with report generation, including graphs, created in Excel. The comparisons between the two techniques are expressed as proportions. Standard descriptive statistical methods (such as mean) were calculated, and a comparison of the proportions was performed using a two-tailed Chi squared test. Differences were considered to be significant for a p-value ≤ 0.05 [30].