Speakers - 2024

Biography

Petrov M works as an Associate Professor at the Medical University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Abstract

Identifying microorganisms from positive blood cultures by routine methods is time-consuming. It may lead to inadequate initial therapy, development of antibiotic resistance, prolonged hospital stay, increased medical costs, and decreased patient survival. In the last two decades, several methods have been introduced to improve the microbiological diagnosis of bacteremia/fungemia and to reveal their etiological spectrum. The present study aims to compare modern microbiological methods (fluorescence in situ hybridization - FISH, multiplex PCR - mPCR, Accelerate Pheno system, Mass spectrometry) with routine microbiological examination in diagnosing positive blood cultures and outline their advantages and limitations. The study included 233 positive blood cultures from patients hospitalized at University Hospital “St. George” - Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Routine biochemical and antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing and semi-automated and automated systems were used to compare and confirm microorganisms and results. 
Another part of this study included 115 patients from the ICU at the University Hospital "St. George,” Plovdiv. Information about the patients was obtained from the hospital database: length of hospital stay, therapy and treatment outcomes, the cost of the clinical pathway and clinical procedures, the cost of antimicrobial therapy, the average cost per patient, expenses for diagnostic tests, and length of stay, and indirect hospital costs.
Despite the higher costs of antimicrobial treatment in patients diagnosed with rapid tests, the savings in bed days (direct costs without medications and indirect costs) are significant and lead to a lower overall expenditure of financial resources.
The treatment costs of hospitalized patients were cut significantly due to the timely diagnosis of the causative agent,
The rapid and reliable identification of the most common pathogens in blood infections, the possibility of determining resistance genes by mPCR, and the rapid antibiogram by the Accelerate Pheno system immediately after the blood culture is positive would allow clinicians to be guided promptly and the diagnostic and therapeutic approach optimized.

Keywords: Modern microbiological methods, Fluorescence in situ hybridization, Multiplex PCR, Mass spectrometry