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Performance evaluation of the Verigene® (Nanosphere) and FilmArray® (BioFire®) molecular assays for identification of causative organisms in bacterial bloodstream infections

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European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Molecular assays designed to provide bacterial identification and detection of resistance genes directly from positive blood cultures can significantly reduce the time to definitive results. This has the potential to improve patient management and antimicrobial stewardship. However, the extent of such an impact is yet to be fully assessed. We tested two such assays, the Verigene® System Bloodstream Infection Tests (Nanosphere, Inc., Northbrook, IL, USA) (both Gram-positive and Gram-negative cartridges) and the FilmArray® Blood Culture Identification Panel (BioFire® Diagnostics, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, USA). We compared their accuracy and speed of organism and resistance gene identification to conventional culture-based methods for 173 positive blood cultures. We also retrospectively determined, for organisms deemed not to be contaminants, the potential impact on antimicrobial prescribing. Both the Verigene® and FilmArray® assays accurately identified organisms, on average, 27.95 and 29.17 h earlier than conventional methods, respectively. There were a significant number of false-positives for Pseudomonas aeruginosa with the FilmArray® assay, which may have been related to contamination of the bioMérieux BacT standard anaerobic blood culture bottles, which the manufacturer has acknowledged. Both panels provided results significantly faster than conventional methods. In our setting, the extent of the potential positive impact on antimicrobial prescribing was modest (9 out of 173 samples). However, this may be an underestimation, since probable contaminants were not included in this analysis. In conclusion, both panels gave accurate results with significantly improved turnaround times.

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Conflict of interest

CW reports receiving an educational grant from Nanosphere to attend ECCMID 2014. All other authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Financial support

This work was supported by the NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College, London. We are grateful to Una Health, BioFire® Diagnostics, Grifols and Nanosphere for providing consumables and loan of equipment free of charge. The manufacturers took part in neither the study design and execution nor the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, King’s College, London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    C. Ward, P. Wade, U. Ebrahimsa & S. D. Goldenberg

  2. Viapath LLP, London, UK

    K. Stocker & J. Begum

  3. Directorate of Infection, St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK

    S. D. Goldenberg

Authors
  1. C. Ward
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  2. K. Stocker
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  3. J. Begum
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  4. P. Wade
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  5. U. Ebrahimsa
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  6. S. D. Goldenberg
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Correspondence to S. D. Goldenberg.

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Ward, C., Stocker, K., Begum, J. et al. Performance evaluation of the Verigene® (Nanosphere) and FilmArray® (BioFire®) molecular assays for identification of causative organisms in bacterial bloodstream infections. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 487–496 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2252-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-014-2252-2

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