Abstract

Bloodstream Infections (BSI), represent an important cause of both morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, the insufficient sensibility of blood cultures whenever a patient has previously received antibiotic therapy, as well as the presence of slow growing and/ or intracellular microorganisms, has generated the need of implementing new diagnostic methods. As a result, in 2012, Biofire Diagnostics, launched FilmArray®, a blood culture identification panel, which is an FDA, CE-IVD, and TGA certified multiplex PCR system that integrates sample preparation, amplification, detection and analysis.
Material and methods: the objective was to discern the sensitivity and specificity of the BioFire FilmArray® Blood Culture Identification (BCID) Panel compared to blood culture, for the identification of microorganisms causing bacteremia and the susceptibility profile in the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases. A total of 42 clinical records of patients with positive blood cultures, who also underwent a FilmArray® test were evaluated.
Results: The FilmArray® panel showed a sensibility of 96.4% and a specificity of 50% when compared with the Gold Standard. The median in hours elapsed from sample reception to result reports by the clinical microbiology service was 31.31 (±19.35) with the FilmArray® versus the 123.42 hours (±71.28) median of the traditional blood culture method. This difference was statistically significant (p<0.001).
Conclusion: FilmArray® panel as an emerging diagnostic method, is of significant utility for pathogens identification even in comparison to the traditional method. By curtailing time to pathogen identification, FilmArray® contributes to an earlier establishing of targeted antimicrobial treatment.

Keywords

blood culture, PCR, microorganism, bloodstream infection