Laboratory

Provide rapid and accurate results that influence antibiotic selection, patient management and improve overall hospital operations

Scenario - Identification of Positive Blood Cultures

A patient's blood culture turns positive. If the Gram stain reveals Gram-positive cocci in clusters (GPCC), how long does it take to confidently report to the attending physicians that the organism is S. aureus, or even MRSA, and requires aggressive therapy? How long does it take to report that the GPCC is coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) that most like represents contamination and does not require therapy? How long does it take to report species identification results for Yeast-positive blood cultures to ensure appropriate antifungal selection for C. albicans and non-C. albicans candidemia?

To provide better care for patients with infections, physicians, pharmacists and infection control practitioners require rapid results from the microbiology lab to guide effective and appropriate therapy. With conventional microbiology methods, identification and susceptibility results are not available for at least a day or more. Consequently, patients are often treated empirically whether or not they have a true infection, leading to unnecessary, inappropriate or even inadequate antibiotic coverage.¹ Delaying appropriate and effective therapy can result in:

Opportunity for the Laboratory

AdvanDx's molecular-based diagnostic products provide rapid identification of micro-organisms causing infections. The products are designed for smooth implementation into the workflow of standard microbiology labs with a minimum of upfront investment. Results are available within hours and help physicians, pharmacists and infection control practitioners improve therapy for their patients. By implementing rapid diagnostics, microbiology labs can play a more integral role in overall patient management and hospital operations by reducing turn-around time for accurate results that can support appropriate patient therapy.

PNA FISH™ provides rapid identification of bacteria and yeast in positive blood cultures. The accurate results are available in hours instead of days and support appropriate therapy for patients with bloodstream infections. Studies show that implementing PNA FISH can result in:

EVIGENE™ provides rapid detection of antibiotic resistance and virulence markers in bacteria causing hospital and community acquired infections. The rapid results allow laboratories, physicians, pharmacists and infection control to better coordinate efforts to combat the spread of resistant and virulent bacteria and in turn improve both patient care and overall hospital operations.

Please see individual products for country specific regulatory status

1. Surdulescu S, et al. Clin. Perform. Qual. Health Care. 1998 Apr-Jun; 6(2):60-2
2. Toombs et al. Impact of Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH) for Enterococcal blood stream infections. Oral Abstract #131, IDSA 2006 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada
3. Forrest et al. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2006 Jul;58(1):154-8
4. Forrest et al. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2006 44: 3381-3383.