Who’s ready to rumble? In the battle between traditional blood culture testing and the BioFire® Blood Culture Identification 2 (BCID2) Panel, the syndromic testing approach comes out on top.
There are many challenges when it comes to traditional blood culture testing that make the syndromic approach more useful for clinicians, labs, and hospitals. For example, traditional testing is time consuming, taking an average of 24–72 hours after a positive blood culture for results. Microbial susceptibility testing adds even more time after that. Also, traditional testing will only detect microbes that readily grow under culture.
The syndromic approach uses multiplex PCR technology to quickly and accurately identify possible causes of blood infections. The syndromic BioFire BCID2 Panel offers a comprehensive menu, enabling it to identify a broad grouping of probable pathogens in a single, rapid test.
The BioFire BCID2 Panel tests for 43 targets associated with bloodstream infections including gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, yeast, and 10 antimicrobial resistance genes—all with one test and with results available in about an hour from a positive blood culture.
With similar and overlapping symptoms, it’s impossible to know what’s causing a bloodstream infection without laboratory results. Because traditional blood culture testing is slow, clinicians often prescribe empiric therapy while awaiting results. This can lead to overuse of unnecessary antimicrobials.
Faster answers with a blood culture identification panel can allow clinicians to make faster therapy decisions. The first-generation BioFire® FilmArray® Blood Culture Identification (BCID) Panel combined with antimicrobial stewardship interventions decreased time to optimal therapy by 33.5 hours in the pediatric population.1
Fast answers don’t only help with faster therapy, they can support antimicrobial stewardship as well. The IDSA recommends the addition of rapid diagnostic testing and an active ASP to improve clinical outcomes.2 One study demonstrated that pairing the BioFire BCID Panel with antimicrobial stewardship provided the greatest benefit in terms of antimicrobial de-escaltion.3
The authors of a study about the benefits of adding the BioFire BCID Panel to an established antimicrobial stewardship program, stated: “Adding the BCID to our ASP intervention was clearly beneficial, as time to effective therapy and time to first antimicrobial de-escalation occurred more rapidly, and utilization of narrow-spectrum therapies significantly increased, with no harmful effects on patient care.”4
The BioFire BCID2 Panel tests for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, as well as yeast and antimicrobial resistance genes, all in one test. Comprehensive results on a blood culture identification panel may help cut down on the amount of testing labs need to do because they don’t have to test for one pathogen at a time. Furthermore, fast answers on 10 antimicrobial resistance genes may help avoid additional antimicrobial susceptibility testing after pathogen identification.
Simple to perform, the BioFire BCID2 Panel test takes just two minutes of hands-on lab tech time, with automated results and an easy-to-read report.
Faster organism identification and reduced time to optimal therapy can also lead to better economic outcomes due to reduced antimicrobial use and shorter lengths of stay. BioFire BCID Panel identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci contaminants resulted in a shorter post-culture length of stay and saved roughly $30,000 per 100 patients tested.5
In a world of slow, labor-intensive testing, multiplex PCR testing with the BioFire BCID2 Panel can give you the advantage over bloodborne pathogens. With its quick, comprehensive methods, the BioFire BCID2 Panel will give your hospital, clinic, or lab the tools it needs for fast, accurate results in less time.
Economic Value of the BioFire BCID2 Panel