Abstract:
Background. Bloodstream infection (BSI) is an important concern in transplant patients.
Early intervention with appropriate antimicrobial therapy is critical to better clinical outcome;
however, there is significant delay when conventional identification methods are used.
Methods. We aimed to determine the diagnostic performance of the FilmArray BloodCulture
Identification Panel, a recently approved multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay detecting
24 BSI pathogens and 3 resistance genes, in comparison with the performances of conventional
identification methods in liver transplant (LT) patients. A total of 52 defined sepsis episodes
(signal-positive by blood culture systems) from 45 LT patients were prospectively studied.
Results. The FilmArray successfully identified 37 of 39 (94.8%) bacterial and 3 of 3
(100%) yeast pathogens in a total of 42 samples with microbial growth, failing to detect
only 2 of 39 (5.1%) bacterial pathogens that were not covered by the test panel. The
FilmArray could also detect additional pathogens in 3 samples that had been reported as
having monomicrobial growth, and it could detect Acinetobacter baumannii in 2 samples
suspected of skin flora contamination. The remaining 8 blood cultures showing a positive
signal but yielding no growth were also negative by this assay. Results of MecA, KPC, and
VanA/B gene detection were in high accordance. The FilmArray produced results with
significantly shorter turnaround times (1.33 versus 36.2, 23.6, and 19.5 h; P < .05) than
standard identification methods, Vitek II, and Vitek MS, respectively.
Conclusions. This study showed that the FilmArray appeared as a reliable alternative
diagnostic method with the potential to mitigate problems with protracted diagnosis of the
BSI pathogens in LT patients.
