Staphylococcus aureus infections are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality, in addition to representing a considerable economic burden. The aim of this study was to explore a low cost screen printed electrode as a sensor for the detection of S. aureus using impedance spectroscopy. S. aureus was incubated in chambers containing the electrodes and the results analysed using a novel normalisation approach. These results show that it is possible to detect the presence of S. aureus in LB media after 30 min incubation of a 1% growth culture, in addition to being able to see immediate cell concentration dependant changes in 0.9% NaCl. These observations imply that a number of electrochemical mechanisms cause a change in the impedance as a result of the presence of S. aureus, including adsorption to the electrode surface and the metabolism of the bacteria during growth. The study suggests that this detection approach would be useful in a number of clinical scenarios where S. aureus leads to difficult to treat infections.

除了代表相当大的经济负担之外，金黄色葡萄球菌感染还导致大量发病和死亡。这项研究的目的是探索一种低成本的丝网印刷电极，作为使用阻抗光谱法检测金黄色葡萄球菌的传感器。将金黄色葡萄球菌在包含电极的小室中孵育，并使用新型归一化方法分析结果。这些结果表明，有可能检测到金黄色葡萄球菌的存在。在1％生长培养液中孵育30分钟后，在LB培养基中加入Bcl溶液，除了能够立即观察到0.9％NaCl的细胞浓度依赖性变化外。这些观察结果暗示，由于金黄色葡萄球菌的存在，许多电化学机制引起阻抗的变化，包括对电极表面的吸附以及细菌在生长过程中的代谢。研究表明，这种检测方法在许多金黄色葡萄球菌导致难以治疗的感染的临床情况中将是有用的。