The Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology is committed to
establishing itself as a centre of excellence by providing high-quality diagnostic,
educational, training and research services. The department is seen as a trendsetter
in India by embracing the latest cutting-edge technologies in the quest for early,
accurate and affordable diagnoses for better clinical management of patients.
This totally pro-active department traces all positive reports back to the bedside
by sharing the fi ndings with the treating unit for better understanding and
actionable results. This has helped us to detect rare diseases such as cryptococcal
meningitis, tubercular brain abscess, disseminated nocardiosis, melioidosis,
cardiac hydatidosis and systemic histoplasmosis, to name a few.
- Timings: The department is situated on the 1st Floor of the Old Building
and provides 24 × 7 diagnostic services.
Spectrum of services
I. Diagnostics
- Identification and susceptibility testing of organisms using automated
systems
- MALDTI-TOF for rapid identifi cation of bacteria/fungi/mycobacteria
within 5 minutes
- Automation in blood culture (BacT/Alert-3D), the fi rst in North India.
- VITEK-2 for automation in bacterial and yeast identifi cation and
antimicrobial sensitivity
- Anaerobic automated system: Anaxomat
Mycobacterial infections: HAIN’s Genotype MTBDR plus assay for
molecular identifi cation of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and its
resistance to rifampicin and/or INH
- Genprobe for molecular diagnosis of TB
- Accuprobe assay and Genotype Mycobacteria CM assay for rapid species
identifi cation of 16 common Mycobacteria spp. from culture.
- Automated rapid culture and 1st and 2nd-line (10 drugs) antibiotic
sensitivity tests for Mycobacteria performed by the Bact/Alert-3D method
- Molecular testing
- Respiratory panel: 20 pathogens
- Pneumonia panel: 15 bacteria with quantitation (copies/ml), 3 atypical
bacteria, 9 viruses in addition to antibiotic resistance gene detection for
ESBL, carbapenemases, MRSA, VRE
- Meningitis/encephalitis panel: 14 pathogens
- Gastrointestinal panel: 21 pathogens
- Blood culture identifi cation panel: 30 pathogens from positive blood culture
bottle (GPCs: 9, GNBs: 14 and Candida spps.: 7) with antibiotic resistance
gene detection for ESBL, Carbapenemases, MRSA, VRE
- STD Panel
- N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium, C. trachomatis
- Blood bank individual donor screening with nucleic acid amplifi cation:
(NAT-IDT)
HIV, HBV, HCV – Procleix Ultrio Elite Assay, Grifols Diagnostic Solutions Inc.
CA, USA
- Viral Serology
Automated ELISA work-station for diagnosis
- Viral hepatitis serology blood-borne and food-borne (A, B, C and E)
- HIV serology: 4th generation for both p24 antigen and HIV antibody
- Vector-borne virus serology: Dengue NS1 Ag ELFA and IgM ELISA for
Dengue and Chikungunya
- TORCH serology: HSV1 and HSV2 IgM and IgG ELISA and CMV IgG
and IgM, Rubella IgG and IgM, Toxoplasma IgG and IgM ELFA
- Hepatitis B profi le: HBsAg, HBeAg, anti-HBe, anti-HBs titre, anti-HBc
IgM, anti-Hbc total
- Acute viral febrile illness: Measles IgG and IgM, Mumps IgG and IgM
- Other serological tests
- 1,3-ß-D-glucan test: FDA approved panfungal biomarker used to aid in the
diagnosis of most opportunistic invasive fungal infections (IFI)
- Histoplasma urinary antigen test for diagnosing histoplasmosis
- Aspergillus IgG/IgM rapid assay allowing the simultaneous detection
of both IgG and IgM class anti-aspergillus antibodies asay as an aid in
diagnosing chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA)
- Cryptococcal meningitis, leptospirosis, cysticercosis, hydatid disease,
typhoid fever, dengue fever, mycobacterial infections, amoebiasis
- ELFA (VIDAS) for C. diffi cile toxin assay
- Quantiferon TB Gold in tube assay
- Weil Felix test for typhus, IgM ELISA and a rapid antibody test for scrub
typhus
- Legionella urinary antigen
- Filaria antigen test
- Slide agglutination test (SAT) for brucella antibodies and IgM ELISA for
brucella
- Fecal calprotectin test
II. Quality control
- External quality assurance scheme (EQAS) centre
Our department has been running the IAMM-EQAS since 2014 under the aegis
of the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists. Our centre caters to the
North and North-East Zone of India. Currently, we have approximately 650
laboratories enrolled with our centre.
- NABL accreditation
The effi ciency of the laboratory in meticulously following internationally
recommended techniques, adhering to various elaborate in-built control
protocols and guidelines refl ects in the accurate test results. Our laboratory has been NABL (ISO 15189:2003) accredited since 2004. It is accredited as a PT
provider with NABL (ISO17043).
- Participation in EQAS programmes
To maintain the highest standard and monitor the quality of our reports we are
enrolled with various external organizations for EQAS, e.g
- Bacteriology and serology: Christian Medical College, Vellore
- Molecular tests: Christian Medical College, Vellore
- Mycology: PGIMER, Chandigarh
- EQAS panels of viral serology: Christian Medical College, Vellore
- Blood-borne virus serology and NAT: Blood bank EQAS, Institute of
Healthcare Quality Accreditation, Jaipur
III. Hospital infection control activities (HICC)
- Under the HICC, the department carries out surveillance of hospitalacquired infection (HAI). Our hospital received the HMA award from the
HIC committee in 2002.
- Microbiology Newsletter: Our department has been publishing a
6-monthly newsletter for Microbiology (bacteriology and mycology,
serology, molecular biology and mycobacteriology) since 1995, the fi rst of
its kind in India. The data from the newsletter has also been instrumental
in formulating the antibiotic policy of our hospital, which is updated from
time to time.
IV. Teaching
- The department has been successfully running the DNB course in Clinical
Microbiology since 2003 with high pass percentage
V. Research
- Our department has a keen focus on research activities and regularly
undertakes important research projects in collaboration with national and
international organizations (WHO, PHFI, etc.)
- Due to the strong research culture of our department, every year there are
numerous scientifi c publications in national and international journals and
contribution in authoring and editing chapters in books.
Address: 1st Floor, Old Building, Ext: 1150
Landline nos: Enquiry: 1151 Administration offi ce: 1150
Chairman: 1144 Doctors: 1146, 1147
