Accuracy of point-of-care testing for the diagnosis of respiratory pathogens in a paediatric intensive care setting

Respiratory tract infections contribute significantly to paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions. Early diagnosis supports treatment, cohorting and antimicrobial stewardship. Rapid point-of-care (POC) multiplex PCR techniques show promise in improving antimicrobial and investigation stewardship across healthcare settings.1 However, debate exists regarding their role and accuracy.2 3 We sought to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of respiratory pathogen POC testing in our PICU. All patients admitted to the regional Northern Ireland PICU undergo nasal/nasopharyngeal swab respiratory pathogen POC testing. The BioFire FilmArray BFRP2.1 panel (table 1) is used which provides results in under an hour. Simultaneously, laboratory-based viral and microbiological testing is performed at the clinician’s discretion. All laboratory testing is undertaken by the Regional Laboratories using standard molecular and non-molecular techniques, with results taking up to 48 hours. Here, we report a retrospective service evaluation of all PICU respiratory pathogen POC...
Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research