Evaluation of a Commercial Multiplex Molecular Panel for Diagnosis of Infectious Meningitis and Encephalitis.

ABSTRACT: Rapid and accurate laboratory tests are important for the timely diagnosis and treatment of central nervous system infections. The FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis (ME) panel (BioFire Diagnostics, Salt Lake City, UT) is an FDA-cleared, multiplex molecular panel that allows the detection of 14 pathogens (bacterial [n = 6], viral [n = 7], and fungal [n = 1] pathogens) from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In this study, we evaluated the performance characteristics of the FilmArray ME panel using clinical, residual CSF samples (n = 291) that tested positive by a routine method(s) (e.g., bacterial culture, individual real-time PCR assay) for a pathogen represented on the ME panel. Of note, a subset (n = 76) of the CSF specimens was collected during the prevaccine era and had been characterized as p

SUBMITTER: Liesman RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5869843 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature