(Press-News.org) A new automated diagnostic test can quickly and accurately identify most leading causes of Gram-positive bacterial blood stream infections and the presence of three antibiotic resistance genes, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The findings from the study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Nathan Ledeboer from the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), USA, suggest that the new technology could lead to faster diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from sepsis.
Severe sepsis is a life-threatening condition that is usually triggered by a bacterial infection of the bloodstream. In the most severe cases of sepsis multiple organs can fail and in the US alone sepsis causes up to 250,000 deaths a year. The outcome of sepsis is affected by many factors, but fast, accurate identification of the bacterial infection and determination of its antibiotic susceptibility is essential to ensure that patients receive appropriate antibiotics. In the study published this week the researchers evaluated a new test, called Verigene BC-GP, that has been designed to simultaneously detect the DNA of 12 species of Gram-positive bacteria, which are the most common cause of bacterial bloodstream infections, and three antibiotic resistance genes in cultures grown from patient blood samples.
The researchers evaluated the Verigene BC-GP test using 1252 blood cultures from five US clinical centers and 397 contrived cultures (that contained rarer bacterial species found in blood stream infections) compared to standard culture techniques. They found that the test was able to correctly identify patients who were positive for a specific infection in 92.6% to 100% of samples and to correctly determine patients that did not have a specific infection in 94.5-100% of samples. However, about 7.5% of cultures contained Gram-positive bacteria that the test was not designed to detect. The researchers also found that the test was able accurately identifying three bacterial resistance genes (the mecA, vanA, and vanB genes), which confer resistance to the antibiotics vancomycin and methicillin. The test takes about 2 hours to run and in an analysis of 107 blood culture broths the researchers found the test was able to return a result about 42 hours faster than the conventional culture methods.
The researchers say, "[t]he high sensitivity and specificity characteristics of this test, coupled with on-demand testing capability and a [2 hour turnaround time] enable reporting of both the identification and antimicrobial resistance genes of bacteria obtained from blood culture significantly faster than using routine culture methods."
The faster diagnosis should improve the care of patients with sepsis by allowing physicians to prescribe appropriate antibiotics much earlier than is currently possible.
###
Funding: This study was supported by materials and funding provided by Nanosphere Inc. The funder approved design of the study but did not play a role in data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: I have read the journals competing interests policy and have found the following competing interests among authors of the manuscript: NAL and BWB are consultants for Nanosphere. NAL, BWB, and RBT have received honoraria from Nanosphere. NAL, CCG, RC, PP, and RBT have received funding from Nanosphere to support this research.
Citation: Buchan BW, Ginocchio CC, Manii R, Cavagnolo R, Pancholi P, et al. (2013) Multiplex Identification of Gram-Positive Bacteria and Resistance Determinants Directly from Positive Blood Culture Broths: Evaluation of an Automated Microarray-Based Nucleic Acid Test. PLoS Med 10(7): e1001478. doi:10.1371/ journal.pmed.1001478
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001478
Contact:
Maureen Mack
Director of Media Relations,
Medical College of Wisconsin
UNITED STATES
O-(414)955-4744
C-(414) 750-5266
mmack@mcw.edu
Test accurately and swiftly detect most leading causes of bacterial blood stream infection
2013-07-03
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Intervention helps improve and maintain better blood pressure control
2013-07-03
An intervention that consisted of home blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring with pharmacist management resulted in improvements in BP control and decreases in BP during 12 months, compared with usual care, and improvement in BP that was maintained for 6 months following the intervention, according to a study in the July 3 issue of JAMA.
"High blood pressure is the most common chronic condition for which patients visit primary care physicians, affecting about 30 percent of U.S. adults, with estimated annual costs exceeding $50 billion. Decades of research have shown that ...
Study finds in vitro fertilization associated with small increased risk of mental retardation
2013-07-03
In a study that included more than 2.5 million children born in Sweden, compared with spontaneous conception, any in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment was not associated with autistic disorder but was associated with a small but statistically significantly increased risk of mental retardation, according to a study in the July 3 issue of JAMA. The authors note that the prevalence of these disorders was low, and the increase in absolute risk associated with IVF was small.
"Between 1978 and 2012, approximately 5 million infants worldwide were born from in vitro fertilization," ...
Screening using peptide level and collaborative care to help reduce risk of heart failure
2013-07-03
Among patients at risk of heart failure, collaborative care based on screening for certain levels of brain-type natriuretic peptide reduced the combined rates of left ventricular systolic dysfunction, diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure as well as emergency cardiovascular hospitalizations, according to a study in the July 3 issue of JAMA.
"The increasing prevalence of heart failure [HF] remains a major public health concern underlining the need for an effective prevention strategy. Present-day approaches, focusing mainly on risk factor intervention, have brought ...
Home-based walking exercise program improves speed and endurance for patients with PAD
2013-07-03
In a trial that included nearly 200 participants with peripheral artery disease (PAD), a home-based exercise intervention with a group-mediated cognitive behavioral intervention component improved walking performance and physical activity in patients with PAD, according to a study in the July 3 issue of JAMA.
"Few medical therapies improve the functional impairment associated with lower extremity peripheral artery disease. Supervised treadmill exercise increases maximal treadmill walking distance by 50 percent to 200 percent in individuals with PAD. However, supervised ...
Smoking cessation, weight gain, and subsequent CHD risk
2013-07-03
"Cigarette smoking is an important cause of cardiovascular disease, and smoking cessation reduces the risk. However, weight gain after smoking cessation may increase the risk of diabetes and weaken the benefit of quitting," write Juhua Luo, Ph.D., of the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, Ind., and colleagues.
As reported in a Research Letter, the authors used data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) to assess the association between smoking cessation, weight gain, and subsequent coronary heart disease (CHD) risk among postmenopausal women ...
Why do we gesticulate?
2013-07-03
Professor Andrew Bass (Cornell University), who will be presenting his work at the meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology on the 3rd July, said: "We have traced the evolutionary origins of the behavioural coupling between speech and hand movement back to a developmental compartment in the brain of fishes."
"Pectoral appendages (fins and forelimbs) are mainly used for locomotion. However, pectoral appendages also function in social communication for the purposes of making sounds that we simply refer to as non-vocal sonic signals, and for gestural signalling."
Studies ...
Surviving fasting in the cold
2013-07-03
King penguin chicks survive harsh winters with almost no food by minimising the cost of energy production. A new study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Valencia on the 3rd July, shows that the efficiency of the mitochondria, the power house of the cell, is increased in fasted king penguin chicks.
King penguin chicks are socially and morphologically well adapted to harsh environmental conditions, however, they experience a severe energy challenge during the cold sub-Antarctic winter, when food is not readily available. Research headed ...
New test spots more lung clots but seems to result in overdiagnosis
2013-07-03
The introduction of CT pulmonary angiography has been associated with an 80% rise in the detection of pulmonary emboli in the US, but with little change in death rates.
Professor Renda Soylemez Wiener and colleagues argue this is evidence of overdiagnosis. They say some patients are helped, but many are harmed by the adverse effects of unnecessary treatment.
This article is the first of a series looking at the risks and harms of overdiagnosis in a range of common conditions. The series, together with the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference in September, are part of ...
Fluorescent fingerprint tag aims to increase IDs from 'hidden' prints on bullets and knives
2013-07-03
Wednesday 28th June 2013, Durham: A new way of detecting and visualizing fingerprints from crime scenes using colour-changing fluorescent films could lead to higher confidence identifications from latent (hidden) fingerprints on knives, guns, bullet casings and other metal surfaces. The technique is the result of a collaboration between the University of Leicester, the Institut Laue-Langevin and the STFC's ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source, and will be presented today at the Royal Society of Chemistry's Faraday Discussion in Durham.
When your finger touches a surface, ...
Women worldwide know less about politics than men
2013-07-03
Women living in the world's most advanced democracies and under the most progressive gender equality regimes still know less about politics than men. Indeed, an unmistakable gender gap in political knowledge seems to be a global phenomenon, according to a ten-nation study of media systems and national political knowledge funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Women know less about politics than men regardless of how advanced a country is in terms of gender equality, says researcher Professor James Curran, Director of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media ...