Evaluation of new microbiological methods in the diagnosis of bloodstream infections

Rapid identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) of bloodstream infections (BSIs) are essential for the initiation of antimicrobial therapy and can provide benefits for both clinical treatment and reducing costs. The aim of this study was to investigate and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recent technologies and advances in culture-based and molecular-based methods including magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, PCR-based methods, direct inoculation methods, and nucleic acid and peptide fluorescence hybridization. Being familiar with new microbiological methods can provide new insights for improvement of diagnosis and treatment of patients with septicemia and the diagnosis of bloodstream infections.

this study is a review article extracted from several databases including PubMed, Scopus, google scholar, SID and magiran.

Overall, in recent studies, it can be concluded that there are still limitations in the use of novel diagnostic methods to identify the microorganisms present in the bloodstream infection. One of these limitations is the lack of new equipment in laboratories, as well as the lack of skilled staff in most hospitals and clinics. Also, there has not been review articles about cost management and the use of new equipment. In sum, new diagnostic methods are increasing in use, but it is necessary to optimize them.

Although blood culture is still the gold standard for diagnosing bloodstream infections, new methods are still in development and there are need to do more investigation about their sensitivity and specificity.