Antibiotics have saved millions of lives threatened by bacterial infection and have thus transformed modern medicine. During the last 70 years, however, bacteria have naturally shown the ability to become resistant to the various antibiotic molecules that have been developed over time. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is dangerously accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics
Accuracy & Rapidity in the determination of AMR are both essential for improved outcomes and thus for literally saving lives.
Antibiograms/ antimicrobial susceptibility tests (ASTs) stand in the front line at detecting AMR. Today, clinicians usually cannot expect to obtain the result of an AST test until 48 hours have expired. This is due to the process of first sending the sample to their laboratory in order to isolate bacterial pathogens in the patient’s sample (“primary culture”: 16-24 hours), and then to test each pathogen against a given antibiotic molecule (AST).
The clinicians must prescribe probabilistic, large-spectrum antibiotics while waiting for the AST results. Once those obtained, treatment will often need to be adjusted. Patients receiving initially inappropriate treatment will most often end up with complications (dysbiose) and longer hospital stays.
Speeding up the diagnosis of AMR has become a major need for clinicians who need to identify the best therapy as quickly as possible and to use wide-spectrum antibiotics wisely. Fast diagnostics are also important for hospitals which need to prevent the spread of drug-resistant infections and implement antimicrobial stewardship measures.
