Multicenter Evaluation of the Accelerate PhenoTest BC Kit for Rapid Identification and Phenotypic Antimicrobial...

Area of Science:

• Clinical microbiology
• Diagnostic technology
• Antimicrobial resistance

Background:

• Bloodstream infections require rapid pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for effective treatment.
• Current methods can be time-consuming, delaying critical therapeutic decisions.
• The Accelerate Pheno system offers a novel approach to expedite these processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of the Accelerate Pheno system for rapid identification and AST of common bloodstream pathogens.
• To compare the Accelerate Pheno system's results against established methods like Vitek 2 and broth microdilution/disk diffusion.

Main Methods:

• A multicenter study utilizing fresh and seeded blood cultures.
• Comparison of Accelerate Pheno system's pathogen identification (ID) and AST results with Vitek 2 and conventional AST methods.
• Evaluation of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, essential agreement (EA), and categorical agreement (CA).

Main Results:

• High accuracy in identifying 14 bacterial and 2 *Candida* species (94.6-100% sensitivity).
• Accurate monomicrobial calls in 89% of fresh positive blood cultures (97.3% PPV).
• High overall essential agreement (97.6% Gram-positive, 95.4% Gram-negative) and categorical agreement (97.9% Gram-positive, 94.3% Gram-negative) for AST.
• Low error rates (VME, ME, mE) for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.

Conclusions:

• The Accelerate Pheno system provides rapid and accurate identification of common bloodstream pathogens.
• Phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results are available within hours, supporting timely antimicrobial stewardship.
• This system has the potential to significantly improve patient management by enabling faster, targeted therapy.