Rapid Pathogen Identification Improving in Critically Ill

There has been improvement in rapid diagnostic techniques for identifying infections in critically ill patients over the last decade, according to a review study published Nov. 28, 2014, in BioMed Central Infectious Diseases. However, there are still pressing improvements needed to expedite diagnosis, especially among drug resistant strains and to widen the spectrum of identifiable pathogens and the sample types tests can be run on. Given the well-documented findings that infections in ICU patients are often deadly “rapid etiologic microbiological diagnosis is mandatory,” the authors write. The Spanish researchers conducted a systematic literature search of peer-reviewed publications published between 1995 and 2014 to evaluate the evolution of diagnostics for common ICU infections, including bloodstream infection (BSI), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Diagnosis of sepsis remains a “major challenge,” the authors say with no specific marker available to determine a true diagnosis of sepsis. While time-consuming blood cultures are still considered the gold standard for diagnosis, they are currently being used in conjunction with molecular tests. The researchers found that molecular technologies are improving diagnosis and impacting clinical decision-making, with results ideally produced within 6 hours, but still have some notable shortcomings, including the lack of an appropriate gold standard, as well […]