A multicentre study of bacteraemia using a new commercial universal 16S rDNA PCR test

Bloodstream infection is a life-threatening condition with a high mortality rate, especially in intensive care and neutropenic patients. Standard diagnostics is based on blood culturing (BC). However, limitations of BC include relatively low sensitivities and a long time-to-result for the identification of the pathogen, generally over 2 days and more. On the grounds of data from a multicentre study using a universal 16S rRNA gene PCR assay, SepsiTest™, molecular diagnosis is discussed as a rapid and sensitive tool for the detection and identification of pathogens supportive of BC. A new commercial PCR test, SepsiTest™, for direct detection of bacteria in whole blood was compared with BC in terms of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and time to positivity (TTP) of bacterial infections of the bloodstream of critically ill patients.