Rapid Detection of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens Using the T2MR versus Blood Culture in Patients with Severe COVID-19
Tamara Seitz, Johannes Holbik, Julian Hind, Georg Gibas, Mario Karolyi, Erich Pawelka, Marianna Traugott, Christoph Wenisch, Alexander Zoufaly
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a high number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic worldwide. One of the reasons is the high number of bacterial and fungal superinfections in patients suffering from critical disease. However, diagnosis is often challenging. In this study we could show that the additional use of the culture-independent method T2MR did not only show a much higher detection rate of bacterial and fungal pathogens but also a significantly shorter time until detection and therapy change compared to the gold standard: the blood culture. The implementation of T2MRin the care of patients with severe course of COVID-19 might lead to an earlier sufficient antimicrobial therapy and as a result lower mortality and less use of broad-spectrum unnecessary therapy reducing the risk of resistance development.