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Novel electronic biosensor for automated inoculum preparation to accelerate antimicrobial susceptibility testing
Suzanne Putney1, Andrew H Theiss1, Nitin K Rajan1
1Avails Medical Inc., 1455 Adams Drive, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.
Scientific Reports
|June 1, 2021
Summary
Accelerating antimicrobial susceptibility testing with the novel eQUANT instrument significantly reduces turnaround time for bloodstream infections. This allows for faster targeted antibiotic therapy, improving patient outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Clinical microbiology
- Infectious diseases
- Medical diagnostics
Background:
- Timely antimicrobial therapy is crucial for bloodstream infection (BSI) patient outcomes.
- Traditional antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) methods are slow, delaying appropriate treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the eQUANT instrument for rapid, standardized inoculum preparation directly from positive blood cultures.
- To assess the performance of eQUANT-generated inocula in AST.
Main Methods:
- The eQUANT instrument uses electrical biosensors to create a 0.5 McFarland standard inoculum from positive blood cultures.
- Inocula from clinically significant Enterobacterales were compared to traditional methods.
- AST performance was evaluated using VITEK2 and disk diffusion.
Main Results:
- eQUANT inocula showed comparable CFU/ml concentrations to traditional methods.
- Essential and categorical agreement for AST was ≥95% with VITEK2 and disk diffusion.
- Standardized inocula were prepared 2-3 hours after positive blood culture flag.
Conclusions:
- The eQUANT instrument enables rapid, standardized inoculum preparation for AST directly from positive blood cultures.
- This technology has the potential to significantly shorten the time to targeted antibiotic therapy.
- eQUANT can improve clinical practice by accelerating diagnostic workflows for BSIs.
