Susceptibility of Gram-negative bacteria from blood cultures assessed by a rapid antimicrobial susceptibility assay, the VITEK® Reveal™: a preliminary study

The timely administration of the effective therapy is an important factor for the favourable outcome of patients with sepsis. In this study, we evaluated a new rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) method, the Vitek®Reveal^™ system, to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of 44 Gram-negative bacteria randomly isolated from blood. The results show a mean turnaround time of 5.42 h. The overall agreement with the reference method was >90%, except for piperacillin/tazobactam and cefepime (90.4%). The study, therefore, suggests that the assay decreases the time for obtaining AST with the potential to have a positive impact on patient care. However, further studies are needed to extend and confirm these preliminary findings, particularly the assay performance for some drugs and eventually for Gram-positive micro-organisms.