Molecular diagnosis of bacteremia in a pediatric intensive care unit: a step forward

Aim: T2Bacteria (R) Panel detects six ESKAPE pathogens in around 3.5 h directly in whole blood. Our aim was to compare T2Bacteria with simultaneous blood culture in critically ill children with suspected bloodstream infection. Materials & methods: Retrospective study of critically ill children admitted to our tertiary-care center (2018-2020). Results: A total of 60 patients were recruited, including 63 episodes and 75 T2Bacteria/blood cultures were performed. Overall agreement between T2Bacteria and blood culture was 78.7% with a discordance of 21.3% (16/75 samples). Conclusion: T2Bacteria Panel may be useful in critically ill children providing an accurate and fast diagnosis of bacteremia directly from blood sample and detecting pathogens not recovered in blood cultures.

Automated summary

This study retrospectively compared the use of T2Bacteria Panel with blood culture in critically ill children suspected of bloodstream infection. The results showed that T2Bacteria Panel can provide an accurate and fast diagnosis of bacteremia directly from blood samples, detecting pathogens that were not recovered in blood cultures.