Clinical and Medico-economic Evaluation of a Rapid Test (ePlex-BCID®, GenMark) for the Diagnosis of Bacteremia and Fungemia.

Bacteremia and fungemia are severe complications, sometimes life-threatening, of every sepsis. During septicemia, every hour matters to start an appropriate antibiotic or antifungal treatment as every hour of delay is associated to higher death rate. The rapid multiplex PCR assay that is evaluated in this study allows to identify in 60 to 90 minutes, the bacteria or fungi that is present in the positive blood culture bottles and to identify resistance markers to first line antibiotics that are used to treat sepsis. This strategy allows quicker adaptation of antibacterial or antifungal treatment based on the species of the bacteria or fungi identified and on the results of the resistance markers compared to current diagnosis strategy of bacteremia or fungemia. This quicker adaptation could lead to improved survival rate, reduced complications of sepsis, reduced hospital stay length and could reduce the use of large spectrum antibiotics.