[Diagnostic Approaches in Sepsis - Part 2: Pathogen Detection].

Area of Science:

• Medical Microbiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Critical Care Medicine

Background:

• Culture-based methods are the current standard for antimicrobial susceptibility testing in sepsis and septic shock.
• These methods allow pathogen identification from various clinical specimens.
• A significant drawback is the time delay between specimen collection and results, crucial for timely treatment in critical illness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current role of culture-based methods in sepsis diagnosis.
• To explore the potential of emerging molecular diagnostic tools for faster pathogen and resistance detection.
• To discuss the implications of these advancements for guiding antimicrobial therapy in intensive care units (ICUs).

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on diagnostic methods for sepsis.
• Comparison of culture-based techniques with molecular methods such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS).
• Analysis of the advantages and limitations of each approach in the context of clinical routine and critical care.

Main Results:

• Culture-based methods remain essential for guiding antimicrobial treatment despite their latency.
• Molecular methods (PCR, NGS) offer significantly faster detection of pathogens and resistance genes.
• These advanced techniques are not yet widely implemented in routine clinical practice.

Conclusions:

• While culture-based methods are established, their time-consuming nature is a limitation in managing sepsis.
• Molecular diagnostics, including PCR and NGS, hold substantial promise for accelerating pathogen identification and guiding therapy.
• Further clinical validation and integration of these innovative tools could revolutionize sepsis management in ICUs.