The Value of FilmArray Pneumonia Panel plus in Managing Nosocomial Respiratory Infections in Hospitalized Patients: Cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

The traditional reliance on slow culture-based diagnostics often leads to delays in targeted therapy and the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, aggravating the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

AIM: To compare the BioFire, FilmArray Pneumonia Panel plus (FA-PneumobioMérieux) assay with a conventional diagnostic tools, including culture and VITEK 2 (bioMérieux), to identify microorganisms in critically ill patients (severe pulmonary infection) to get the best results within a short period.

METHODS

An observational, comparative cross-sectional, hospital-based investigation was carried out at the microbiology unit of the clinical pathology department of Alazhar University hospitals. Lower respiratory tract samples were collected from patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia and ICU admissions. Conventional culture was carried out for all specimens. Susceptibility testing was performed on all specimens using the VITEK 2 system (bioMérieux). The BioFire FA-Pneumo assay was conducted according to the manufacturer's instructions.

RESULTS

Out of 60 patients with pneumonia 90% of specimens were sputum samples. For all examined pathogens, there was no statistically significant difference between the detection rates of Multiplex PCR and Vitek methods (P-value >0.05). The most prevalent resistant gene detected by Multiplex PCR was gene (blaNDM-1 ), found in 23.3% (n=14) of the samples, followed by OXA-48-like, which was found in 15% (n=9) of the samples. The detection of CTX-, CTX-M, KPC, mecA/C, and MREJ, VIM resistant genes were at lower frequencies.

CONCLUSION

The FilmArray Pneumonia Panel Plus (FA-Pneumo) is a rapid molecular diagnostic tool designed to overcome the limitations of conventional methods by quickly identifying a broad range of pathogens and resistance genes. The capability of FA-Pneumo to rapidly identify both pathogens and key resistance genes provides a significant advantage for clinical decision-making.