Clinical Impact of Rapid Molecular Testing for Pathogens in Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Illness : A Pragmatic Trial

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is among the most common reasons for emergency department (ED) visits. A clear understanding of the likely pathogens is essential for the rapid institution of adequate antimicrobial therapy. Due to the indistinguishable clinical symptoms between viral and bacterial pathogens, patients with viral respiratory infection are usually under-evaluated while unnecessary antibacterial agents are more likely to be administered. With the development of highly sensitive end-to-end point-of-care (POC) multiplex PCR system, rapid diagnosis of respiratory pathogens for CAP in the ED becomes possible. Our previous NTUH-VGH cooperative research project demonstrated POC respiratory viral testing' in conjunction with procalcitonin test can reduce the length of hospital stay and antibiotic consumption. However, viral testing alone cannot guide precision antimicrobial treatment. A complete pneumonia pathogen testing panel should include bacteria, virus, atypical pathogens, and resistant genes. In addition, such test need to be completed within about time at a reasonable cost. The difficult missing has been recently achieved. The BIOFIRE®FILMARRAY® Pneumonia Panel is the only FDA approved mPCR test that can test 18 bacteria (11 Gram negative, 4 Gram positive and 3 atypical), 7 antibiotic resistance markers, and 9 viruses in one test within 45 minutes. Currently, the world is eagerly to learn how this new diagnostic technology can transform the clinical management of pneumonia. With this in mind, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of POC pneumonia pathognome wide testing on the antimicrobial use and outcome of patients. We will perform an open label pragmatic parallel comparison between patients with/without the test. The results will inform the pneumonia guideline. Subsequent health economic analysis based on this study will be important to the reimbursement policy of the health insurance of Taiwan.