European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology
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Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. · Oct 2014
ReviewDevelopments for improved diagnosis of bacterial bloodstream infections.
Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are associated with high mortality and increased healthcare costs. Optimal management of BSI depends on several factors including recognition of the disease, laboratory tests and treatment. Rapid and accurate identification of the etiologic agent is crucial to be able to initiate pathogen specific antibiotic therapy and decrease mortality rates. ⋯ These approaches include protein-based (MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry) and nucleic acid-based (polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) identification from subculture, blood cultures, and whole blood to decrease time to results. Pathogen enrichment and DNA isolation methods, to enable optimal pathogen DNA recovery from whole blood, are described. In addition, the use of biomarkers as patient pre-selection tools for molecular assays are discussed.