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Updated: Jan 14, 2026
Author Spotlight: Accelerating Diagnostic Accuracy with Direct Identification of Gram-Negatives from Blood Culture Bottles
Published on: May 24, 2024
Evaluation of organism inclusion on five rapid blood pathogen identification systems and clinical significance of
Kaylan A Marshall1, Derrick J Chen2
1UW School of Medicine and Public Health, 750 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53726, USA.
Objective:
Rapid organism identification and appropriate antimicrobial treatment are essential when treating bloodstream infections. In this study, five rapid blood pathogen identification systems (RBPIS) were evaluated to determine the inclusion of bacterial and fungal organisms from clinical blood culture data on each system.
Methods:
Blood cultures performed between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, at UW Health University Hospital were analyzed to determine if each system included the causative organisms in their panels.
Results:
Of the 1787 organisms, the ePlex series of panels included 84.6 % of organisms, BioFire 79.9 %, Verigene 76.8 %, Accelerate 70.8 %, and T2 30.6 %. Organisms that were not included by any of the systems tended to be Gram-positive bacilli other than Listeria spp. or anaerobes. The most frequently missed organisms overall, Staphylococcus spp. not S. aureus, Streptococcus spp., and Enterococcus spp., were primarily missed by the T2 system. When analyzing a 1-month period for clinical significance of off-panel organisms, the Accelerate system did not include 50.8 % of clinically significant organisms, Verigene 48.1 %, T2 47.6 %, BioFire 44.9 %, and ePlex 42.1 %.
Conclusion:
While some systems such as ePlex offer more expansive inclusion of potential bloodstream pathogens, none are all-inclusive, and all may potentially miss clinically significant organisms.
