Review
Bench-to-bedside review: Rapid molecular diagnostics for bloodstream infection - a new frontier?
1 Infection Control Program, Geneva University Hospitals and Medical School, 4, rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland
2 Department of Anaesthesia, Juliane Marie Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100, Denmark
3 Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Geneva University Hospitals and Medical School, Geneva, Switzerland
4 University of Antwerp, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Institute, Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital Antwerp, Wilrijkstraat 10 2650, Antwerp, Belgium
Critical Care 2012, 16:222 doi:10.1186/cc11202
Published: 29 May 2012Abstract
Among critically ill patients, the diagnosis of bloodstream infection poses a major challenge. Current standard bacterial identification based on blood culture platforms is intrinsically time-consuming and slow. The continuous evolvement of molecular techniques has the potential of providing a faster, more sensitive and direct identification of causative pathogens without prior need for cultivation. This may ultimately impact clinical decision-making and antimicrobial treatment. This review summarises the currently available technologies, their strengths and limitations and the obstacles that have to be overcome in order to develop a satisfactory bedside point-of-care diagnostic tool for detection of bloodstream infection.
