IMPACTO DE LA METODOLOGíA MALDI-TOF EN LA IDENTIFICACIóN CLíNICA DE AGENTES INFECCIOSOS.

The term "MALDI" is the abbreviation of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption / Ionization and "TOF" which refers to the ion detector coupled to MALDI, which is based on the time of flight of the ions. MALDI is a soft ionization method used in mass spectrometry analytical technique that represents a highly sensitive instrument capable of qualitatively and quantitatively identifying any mixtures of substances. It is a technique widely used in proteomics for the identification of microorganisms by the method of the peptide fingerprint. Schematically we describe in this review the most relevant aspects of its application in Clinical Microbiology.