How Multiplex-PCR Can Fit Into Diagnostic Testing Strategies for Pneumonia

Current diagnostic methods for lower respiratory specimens typically take one to two days to identify most bacterial pathogens. During that time, clinicians must rely on guideline recommendations and clinical diagnosis to guide empiric therapy, which is not optimized based on the patient’s individual pathogen. The BioFire Pneumonia Panel will provide pathogen identification in a much shorter timeframe and may allow clinicians to optimize targeted pathogen-specific therapy sooner.

The BioFire Pneumonia Panel is a rapid multiplex-PCR test that identifies 33 targets, including 18 bacteria, 8 viruses and 7 antimicrobial resistance genes from lower respiratory tract specimens in about an hour. It provides semi-quantitative results (in copies/ml) for 15 of the bacterial targets. This new feature provided by multiplex-PCR testing may help clinicians and laboratorians separate colonizing from pathogenic levels of bacteria. 

This webinar will discuss the current role of diagnostic testing for the diagnosis of pneumonia and how the BioFire Pneumonia Panel will fit into this landscape. Dr. Amanda Harrington, Director, Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Loyola University Medical Center was a principal investigator on the BioFire Pneumonia Panel clinical evaluation. She will discuss the clinical performance of the BioFire Pneumonia Panel as well as share data from an evaluation of the testing performed in the clinical laboratory at Loyola University Medical Center.

Speaker

Amanda T. Harrington, PhD, D(ABMM), Director, Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Loyola University Medical Center

Amanda Harrington is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Loyola University Chicago and Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL. She earned her doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of Kansas, did her post-doctoral fellowship training in clinical microbiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, and she is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology. She is a member of the Association for Molecular Pathology as well as the South Central Association for Clinical Microbiology. She is currently serving as the President-Elect for the Illinois Society for Microbiology and is an active member of the American Society for Microbiology. Her research interests include rapid diagnostic and molecular-based testing and metrics based assessment of quality in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.

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