Point-of-Care Method T2Bacteria^®Panel Enables a More Sensitive and Rapid Diagnosis of Bacterial Blood Stream Infections and a Shorter Time until Targeted Therapy than Blood Culture

Abstract

Background: Rapid diagnosis and identification of pathogens are pivotal for appropriate therapy of blood stream infections. The T2Bacteria®Panel, a culture-independent assay for the detection of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in blood, was evaluated under real-world conditions as a point-of-care method including patients admitted to the internal medicine ward due to suspected blood stream infection. Methods: Patients were assigned to two groups (standard of care—SOC vs. T2). In the SOC group 2 × 2 blood culture samples were collected, in the T2 group the T2Bacteria®Panel was performed additionally for pathogen identification. Results: A total of 94 patients were included. Pathogens were detected in 19 of 50 patients (38%) in the T2 group compared to 16 of 44 patients (36.4%) in the SOC group. The median time until pathogen detection was significantly shorter in the T2 group (4.5 h vs. 60 h, p p = 0.043). Conclusions: The implementation of the T2Bacteria®Panel for patients with sepsis leads to an earlier targeted antimicrobial therapy resulting in earlier sufficient treatment and decreased excessive usage of broad-spectrum antimicrobials.

Keywords

• T2Bacteria^®Panel
• T2 magnetic resonance
• bloodstream infection
• culture-independent diagnostics