Identification of S. aureus from Positive Blood Culture in just 20 Minutes

New technology now enables unprecedented (20 minute) species identification of bacteria, directly from positive blood cultures, to enable the reporting of specific pathogen type simultaneously with the Gram stain results. This means clinicians can prescribe the correct antimicrobial therapy for patients with bloodstream infections much earlier, ensuring better patient outcome, reduced hospital stays and lower medical costs.

QuickFISH™ is a rapid, molecular diagnostic platform, developed by AdvanDx, and now exclusively available in the UK from Alpha Laboratories. Based on clinically proven proprietary AdvanDx PNA probe technology and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (FISH), the quick and easy procedure requires only five minutes hands-on time, with a total of only 20 minutes to result. It simplifies and streamlines laboratory workflow and built-in, universal controls ensure confidence in test results. Limited instrumentation and capital investment requirements make QuickFISH easy and inexpensive to implement.

QuickFISH marks a significant advance in time-to-result and ease-of-use that will help clinicians, consultant microbiologists and hospital pharmacists greatly improve antibiotic therapy for patients with dangerous bacterial pathogen infections such as Staphylococcus aureus. AdvanDx has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration and completed the IVD CE mark requirements for QuickFISH.

Additional QuickFISH assays for identification of other clinically important microbial species are currently in development and will provide continued opportunities for AdvanDx, Alpha Laboratories and health care professionals to work together to improve patient care and reduce overall healthcare costs in the United Kingdom.

Find out more and view a video of the QuickFISH protocol at www.alphalabs.co.uk/quickfish