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Analytical Performance to Clinical Outcomes – A Retrospective Analysis of Bacteremia Using the GenMark Dx ePlex® BCID Panels

Abstract

The microbiology laboratory and antimicrobial stewardship working congruently are able to expand the capabilities of rapid molecular testing for blood culture idnetifiation. Using the ePlex BCID Panel, Dr. Sixto Leal and Dr. Todd McCarty have built out their testing and stewardship teams to help drive better outcomes and management in patients with bacteremia.

Description
Conventional microbiology for diagnosing bacteremia has been the mainstay, yet in the past decade, new technologies have emerged. Molecular biology is now an important tool in the microbiology laboratory to help provide organism and resistant mechanism identifications quickly using rapid multiplex panels directly on positive blood cultures to deliver information to clinicians for timelier management of patients with bacteremia due to bacterial and fungal pathogens.

The microbiology laboratory can benefit from rapid sample-to-answer multiplex systems to streamline workflows at the blood culture bench and provide more rapid information to the clinical team managing patients. Members of the clinical team can utilize the faster identification of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance gene information delivered by the laboratory to properly provide care and therapeutic management for each specific patient quickly instead of waiting for traditional culture and antimicrobial susceptibility results, which can take more than 24-48 hours. Knowing the causative pathogen(s) and whether that pathogen does or does not harbor a resistance gene can allow for more effective antimicrobial therapy resulting in more favorable patient outcomes.

In this presentation, the audience will hear a Microbiology Laboratory Director and an Infectious Diseases Physician from a tertiary care facility describe their analytical and clinical outcomes based results from a recent study using the ePlex® Blood Culture Identification Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Panels. Results from the prospectively collected positive blood cultures were assessed against traditional microbiology methods for organism identification while retrospective clinical outcomes were assessed based on a more rapid result for identification of gram-negative and gram-positive pathogens and the presence of associated antimicrobial resistance genes.

Featured Speakers

Sixto M. Leal Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Director, Clinical Microbiology, Fungal Reference Laboratory
Department of Pathology
Division of Laboratory Medicine
UAB Medicine
The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Todd McCarty, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases
Department of Medicine
Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program Director
University of Alabama at Birmingham