DNAemia detection by multiplex PCR and biomarkers for infection in systemic inflammatory response syndrome patients

Fast and reliable assays to precisely define the nature of the infectious agents causing sepsis are eagerly anticipated. New molecular biology techniques are now available to define the presence of bacterial or fungal DNA within the bloodstream of sepsis patients. We have used a new technique (VYOO?) that allows the enrichment of microbial DNA before a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for pathogen detection provided by SIRS-Lab (Jena, Germany). We analyzed 72 sepsis patients and 14 non-infectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) patients. Among the sepsis patients, 20 had a positive blood culture and 35 had a positive microbiology in other biological samples. Of these, 51.4% were positive using the VYOO? test. Among the sepsis patients with a negative microbiology and the non-infectious SIRS, 29.4% and 14.2% were positive with the VYOO? test, respectively. The concordance in bacterial identification between microbiology and the VYOO? test was 46.2%. This study demonstrates that these new technologies offer great hopes, but improvements are still needed.