Trial reportIntensive care medicine2010
A multicenter trial to compare blood culture with polymerase chain reaction in severe human sepsis.
Trial report in Intensive care medicine, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Rapid versus standard antimicrobial susceptibility testing to guide treatment of bloodstream infection.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Clinical Utility of Molecular Tests for Guiding Therapeutic Decisions in Bloodstream Staphylococcal Infections: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Rapid molecular diagnostic tests in patients with bacteremia: evaluation of their impact on decision making and clinical outcomes.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2015Pooled it
- Accuracy of LightCycler(®) SeptiFast for the detection and identification of pathogens in the blood of patients with suspected sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Intensive care medicine · 2015Pooled it
- Multiplex PCR system for rapid detection of pathogens in patients with presumed sepsis - a systemic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2013Pooled it
- Prevention, diagnosis, therapy and follow-up care of sepsis: 1st revision of S-2k guidelines of the German Sepsis Society (Deutsche Sepsis-Gesellschaft e.V. (DSG)) and the German Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin (DIVI)).German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2010Guideline
- Guideline
- An overview of positive cultures and clinical outcomes in septic patients: a sub-analysis of the Prehospital Antibiotics Against Sepsis (PHANTASi) trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2019Trial
- In Patients With Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis, Prednisolone Increases Susceptibility to Infection and Infection-Related Mortality, and Is Associated With High Circulating Levels of Bacterial DNA.Gastroenterology · 2017Trial
- Impact of multiplex PCR on antimicrobial treatment in febrile neutropenia: a randomized controlled study.Medical microbiology and immunology · 2015Trial
- Diagnosing Sepsis and Identifying Bacterial Resistance Genes Directly from Whole Blood Using a Rapid Real-Time PCR System.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- The contribution of minimally invasive tissue sampling compared to antemortem-derived cause of death determination among inpatient child deaths: the minimally invasive tissue sampling in Malawi study.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Rapid molecular assays versus blood culture for bloodstream infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Culture-independent identification of bloodstream infections from whole blood: prospective evaluation in specimens of known infection status.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- Rationale for sequential extracorporeal therapy (SET) in sepsis.Critical care (London, England) · 2023Review
- Scoping review on diagnostic criteria and investigative approach in sepsis of unknown origin in critically ill patients.Journal of intensive care · 2022Article
- Blood Cultures and Molecular Diagnostics in Intensive Care Units to Diagnose Sepsis: A Bayesian Latent Class Model Analysis.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2021Article
- Diagnostic yield of routine daily blood culture in patients on veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.Critical care (London, England) · 2021Article
- A Mobile Device for Monitoring the Biological Purity of Air and Liquid Samples.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- The Development and Validation of a Machine Learning Model to Predict Bacteremia and Fungemia in Hospitalized Patients Using Electronic Health Record Data.Critical care medicine · 2020Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the presence of microbial DNA in the blood by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its association with disease severity and markers of inflammation in severe sepsis and to compare the performance of PCR with blood culture (BC).
designProspective multicentric controlled observational study.
settingThree surgical intensive care units in university centers and large teaching hospitals. PATIENTS: One hundred forty-two patients with severe sepsis and 63 surgical controls.
interventionsPresence of microbial DNA was assessed by multiplex PCR upon enrollment, and each time a BC was obtained. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsControls had both approximately 4% positive PCRs and BCs. In severe sepsis, 34.7% of PCRs were positive compared to 16.5% of BCs (P < 0.001). Consistently, 70.3% of BCs had a corresponding PCR result, while only 21.4% of PCR results were confirmed by BC. Compared to patients with negative PCRs at enrollment, those testing positive had higher organ dysfunction scores [SOFA, median (25th-75th percentile) 12 (7-15) vs. 9 (7-11); P = 0.023] and a trend toward higher mortality (PCR negative 25.3%; PCR positive 39.1%; P = 0.115).
conclusionsIn septic patients, concordance between BC and PCR is moderate. However, PCR-based pathogen detection correlated with disease severity even if the BC remained negative, suggesting that presence of microbial DNA in the bloodstream is a significant event. The clinical utility to facilitate treatment decisions warrants investigation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
19924398What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.