Improvement of the Immunochromatographic NG-Test Carba 5 Assay for the Detection of IMP Variants Previously Undetected

Here, we evaluated the immunochromatographic assay NG-Test Carba 5v2 (NG-Biotech), with improved IMP variant detection on 31 IMP producers, representing the different branches of the IMP phylogeny, including 32 OXA-48, 19 KPC, 12 VIM, 14 NDM, and 13 multiple carbapenemase producers (CPs), 13 CPs that were not targeted, and 13 carbapenemase-negative isolates. All tested IMP variants were accurately detected without impairing detection of the other carbapenemases. Thus, NG-Test Carba 5v2 is now well adapted to countries with high IMP prevalence and to the epidemiology of CP-Pseudomonas aeruginosa, where IMPs are most frequently detected.