Impact of Short-Incubation MALDI-TOF MS on Rapid Identification of Pathogens and Antibiotic Therapy

Background: It can be a critical point for reducing pathogen identification time and accurate antibiotic treatment for patients with blood circulation infection since it causes high mortality. Objective: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the time differences between conventional identification and MALDI-TOF conventional identification and short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification for positive blood cultures, and to explore the impact of short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification on empirical antibiotic therapy. Methods: Positive blood cultures were collected in our hospital from 2017 to 2019, clinical data were collected from the medical records, which were analyzed retrospectively to determine the empirical antibiotic therapy. Results: Compared with the conventional identification method, the short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification time to initial identification of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecium, and E. faecalis decreased by 22.28 h, 22 h, 23.59 h, 23.63 h, 22.63 h, 23.92 h, and 21.59 h, respectively (P < 0.05). The time to final reporting was decreased by 48.85 h, 47.99 h, 55.40 h, 51.07 h, 49.60 h, 51.78h, and 51.73h, respectively (P < 0.05). However, the antimicrobial susceptibility test time of E. coli, A. baumannii, and S. aureus increased to 2.02 h, 2.19 h, and 3.86 h, respectively (P < 0.05). The coincidence rate of antimicrobial susceptibility was 98.48% between short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification and conventional identification method of all Gram-negative bacilli, and there were no extremely major errors or major errors. The coincidence rate of antimicrobial susceptibility of Gram-positive cocci was 99.53%, one strain of E. faecium and S. aureus had major errors. Patients received earlier correct empirical antibiotic 19.89 h earlier by short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification than the conventional identification method (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The short-incubation MALDI-TOF identification significantly shortens the pathogen identification time and the final report time, it is a reliable method for rapid identification of positive blood cultures; the results of antimicrobial susceptibility are highly consistent, which significantly lead to earlier appropriate empirical therapy of bacteremia.