Performance and workflow comparison of the VITEK MS PRIME and Bruker Biotyper MALDI-TOF MS systems

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is widely used for rapid identification of bacteria and yeast in clinical labs. The VITEK MS PRIME (“PRIME”) is the latest MALDI-TOF MS system from bioMérieux. This study evaluated PRIME’s performance and workflow timing against the MALDI Biotyper CA System by Bruker (“Biotyper”). We compared a collection of 154 bacteria and yeast clinical isolates from various specimen types using three methods: Biotyper target with a toothpick, PRIME target with the PICKME nib, and PRIME target with a loop. Positive blood culture isolates were also analyzed using these methods, with high-experience (HEU, n = 300) and low-experience users (LEU, n = 50) after short (6–8 h) and routine (18–24 h) incubation on agar plates. Workflow timing, from sample processing to organism identification, was assessed to identify time savings. PRIME identified 96% (PICKME) and 95% (Loop) of challenge isolates to genus level, compared with Biotyper at 99%. Short incubation of positive blood culture isolates demonstrated similar species-level identification rates across all methods (Biotyper: 84%, PRIME PICKME: 80%, PRIME Loop: 81%), although more repeats were needed compared with routine incubation. No difference in species identification occurred between users for any method at short incubation (89%–91%, HEU, vs 79%–85% LEU). Single-target process times were comparable for all methods (55–59 min), whereas PRIME methods had shorter hands-on times for analysis of multiple targets (Biotyper: 53 min, PRIME PICKME: 39 min, PRIME Loop: 40 min). These findings highlight the comparable performance of the PRIME and Biotyper systems while demonstrating the potential for time savings with PRIME workflows, particularly in high-throughput settings.