The high morbidity and mortality of sepsis can be impacted by expediting identification (ID) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) of causative bacteria. We evaluated the Qvella FAST™ System which creates a Liquid Colony™ (LC) from blood cultures that can be used to expedite results by 24 to 48 hours. We analyzed 289 LC samples and found that there were 17 (5.9%) that resulted in no ID. One hundred percent of the LC samples that produced an ID were concordant with SOC identification. Gram-positive bacteria showed a categorical agreement (CA) of 99.5%, with 3 minor errors (minE), and no major errors (majE) or very major errors (VME), and essential agreement (EA) of 98.9%. For Gram-negatives, the CA was 97.8% and the EA was 98.5% with 31 minE, 0 majE, and 2 VME. The FAST-System™ can accelerate ID and AST by 24 to 48 hours with potential positive impacts on time to effective therapy for sepsis.
Keywords: Antimicrobial Susceptibilities; Fast; Liquid Colony; Pathogen Identification.
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.