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Objectives: Bloodstream infections in critically ill require a speeded-up microbiological diagnosis to improve clinical outcomes. In this pre-post intervention study, we evaluated how a molecular identification test directly performed on positive blood cultures of critically ill improves patient's therapeutic management., Methods: All adult patients staying at the intensive care unit (ICU) at the time of positive blood culture detection were study-eligible. In the 8-month pre-intervention period (P0), standard positive blood culture management was performed. In the 10-month intervention period (P1), a BioFire® FilmArray® blood culture identification (FA-BCID) test (bioMérieux) was additionally performed 24/7 at detection. The evaluated clinical outcome was time to optimal antimicrobial treatment of the bloodstream infection. FA-BCID microbiological test performances were also analysed., Results: 163 positive blood culture episodes were allocated to P0 and 166 to P1. After the withdrawal of episodes in accordance with defined exclusion criteria, outcome analysis was performed on 110 bloodstream infections both in P0 and P1. Time to optimal antimicrobial treatment in P0 was 14h41 compared to 4h39 in P1. FA-BCID test results led to a treatment adjustment in 35/110 (31.8%) P1 episodes including 26 where the adjustment was the optimal antimicrobial treatment. FA-BCID testing identified 96.2% of the on-panel microorganisms thereby covering 85.2% of our ICU-strain epidemiology. Time to identification with FA-BCID testing was calculated at 1h35. Resistance detection was in complete concordance with routine results. Considering 150 FA-BCID tests were initially performed in P1, 4,3 tests were required to have 1 test leading to an improved therapeutic outcome., Conclusions: FA-BCID testing drastically reduced time to optimal antimicrobial treatment in critically ill with bloodstream infections., Competing Interests: This work was funded by BioFire Diagnostics (Salt Lake City, Utah) (https://www.biomerieux-usa.com/clinical/biofire-film-array). BioFire Diagnostics supplied 2 FilmArray systems as well as the FA-BCID tests to perform the study. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors have no other relevant declarations relating to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development, marketed products.

A rapid preparation procedure was validated for MALDI-TOF MS identification followed by an antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from a non-selective enrichment broth of sterile fluid samples associated with negative classical cultures. This method can be easily integrated in the laboratory routine allowing precious time gain for microbe identification and subsequent adequate treatment initiation., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Traditional anticoagulant agents such as unfractionated heparin (UFH), low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs), fondaparinux, danaparoid and bivalirudine are used in the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases. However, these agents have limitations: their constraining parenteral route of administration and the need for regular coagulation monitoring for HNF. The LMWHs, with their more predictable anticoagulant response, don't require a systematic monitoring. The usefulness of LMWHs monitoring in several clinical situations such as pregnancy, obesity and renal insufficiency is a matter of debate. Indeed, there is no agreement between French and American recommendations on this question. Others aspects are also controversial: the measure of trough anti-Xa activity during pregnancy and the optimal monitoring of LMWHs for patients with antithrombin deficiency (hepatic disease, new-borns). Different tests are available to ensure the monitoring of these drugs, we will see in this review their principle, their advantages and inconvenients. The management of heparin induced thrombocytopenia also needs parenteral anticoagulants: danaparoïd, bivalirudine or argatroban. The modalities of their monitoring are relatively unknown and are presented. Furthermore, platelet monitoring is capital. This article aims to provide guidance about laboratory testing of classic parenteral anticoagulants.

The French-Speaking Cellular Haematology Group (GFHC) recently published criteria for microscopic analysis of a blood smears when a hemogram is requested. In order to evaluate and improve these recommendations using an XN (Sysmex) analyzer, we assessed 31,836 samples categorized into two sub-groups of patients either receiving or not receiving care in the clinical hematology/oncology departments of two university hospitals. By combining the manufacturer's recommendations and the GFHC recommendations, 21.3% of samples had a positive review flag in phase 1 of our study (17,991 samples). In phase 2 (13,845 samples), increasing the immature granulocytes (IG) percentage from 5-10% as a review trigger threshold, and ignoring slides with isolated flags 'PLT HIGH' (thrombocytosis) or 'MCV LOW' (microcytosis) or 'Blast/Abn Lymph and Atypical Lymph' (blast cells/abnormal lymphocytes and atypical lymphocytes) (in the absence of abnormal cells on a previous blood smear within 72 h), enabled us to significantly reduce the number of slides reviewed from 21.3-15.0% (p < 0.0001), without loss of clinical value. This decrease occurred in both sub-groups (hematology 48.7-38.0%, non-hematology 18.3-11.7%, p < 0.0001). In conclusion, the application of the GFHC criteria adapted to XN analyzers has enabled us to optimize the hematology laboratory processes, and thus reduce the production costs and the turnaround time of hemogram results.