%0 Journal Article %A Lindsay, J. A. %A Riley, T. V. %T Susceptibility to desferrioxamine: a new test for the identification of Staphylococcus epidermidis %D 1991 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 35 %N 1 %P 45-48 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00222615-35-1-45 %I Microbiology Society, %X Summary The ability to identify Staphylococcus epidermidis quickly and accurately has become increasingly important in clinical microbiology. Susceptibility to desferrioxamine, an iron-chelating agent, was investigated as a new test for the identification of S. epidermidis. All strains of S. epidermidis and S. hominis tested were susceptible to a 1000-μg disk of desferrioxamine when grown on brain heart infusion agar. All other strains of coagulase-negative staphylococci, S. aureus and micrococci were resistant. As a single test, susceptibility to desferrioxamine was 96.4% efficient in identifying S. epidermidis; when combined with additional tests such as alkaline phosphatase production and fermentation of trehalose, the efficiency improved to 100%. Desferrioxamine disks were easy to prepare, stable and inexpensive. The test was simple to perform and interpret and should readily find application in clinical microbiology laboratories. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-35-1-45