Reporting of Antimicrobial Resistance from Blood Cultures, an Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group Survey Summary: Resistance Marker Reporting Practices from Positive Blood Cultures

Diagnostic Stewardship for Multiplex Respiratory Testing: What We Know and What Needs to Be Done

Syndromic respiratory panels are now widely available in clinical microbiology laboratories and health care institutions. These panels can rapidly diagnose infections and detect antimicrobial resistance genes allowing for more rapid therapeutic optimization compared to standard microbiology approaches. However, given reimbursement concerns and limitations of multiplex molecular testing and results interpretation, maximum clinical utility and positive clinical outcomes depend on active diagnostic stewardship. Here, the authors review clinical outcomes of both upper and lower respiratory panels and present diagnostic stewardship strategies for optimal use of respiratory panels.

Rapid antimicrobial resistance detection methods for bloodstream infection in solid organ transplantation: Proposed clinical guidance, unmet needs, and future directions

Recent advances in antimicrobial resistance detection have spurred the development of multiple assays that can accurately detect the presence of bacterial resistance from positive blood cultures, resulting in faster institution of effective antimicrobial therapy. Despite these advances, there are limited data regarding the use of these assays in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients and there is little guidance on how to select, implement, and interpret them in clinical practice. We describe a practical approach to the implementation and interpretation of these assays in SOT recipients using the best available data and expert opinion. These findings were part of a consensus conference sponsored by the American Society of Transplantation held on December 7, 2021 and represent the collaboration between experts in transplant infectious diseases, pharmacy, antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, and clinical microbiology. Areas of unmet need and recommendations for future investigation are also presented.

Speaking of sepsis: semantics, syntax, and slang

Medical language is in a constant state of evolution. Its grammar and vocabulary are not fixed by rigid rules. The interdisciplinary field of sepsis has become a meeting point for new insights arising from advances in systems biology, epidemiology, mechanistic understandings of disease process and antimicrobial interventions. This convergence has gained from our recent experience of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 and possibilities inferred from emerging information technology. Biomedical descriptors have diverged along disciplinary lines creating an unfortunate disconnect between clinical and laboratory-based terminology. The resulting confusion between clinically determined sepsis and laboratory verified bloodstream infection raises practical questions that affect daily operational processes in the ward, clinic and laboratory. There is an urgent need to understand how the clinical sepsis pathway and corresponding clinical laboratory workflow can be better aligned as a single coherent entity. There is also an implicit need to understand how this process should produce actionable information in a timely and orderly manner, and identify residual obselete terminology that has crept into common usage. A widely accepted sepsis epistemology, ontology and heuristic will help us improve our clinical management of sepsis.

The Future Ain't What It Used to Be…Out With the Old…In With the Better: Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group Innovations

Clinical research networks conduct important studies that would not otherwise be performed by other entities. In the case of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), such studies include diagnostic studies using master protocols, controlled phage intervention trials, and studies that evaluate treatment strategies or dynamic interventions, such as sequences of empiric and definitive therapies. However, the value of a clinical research network lies not only in the results from these important studies but in the creation of new approaches derived from collaborative thinking, carefully examining and defining the most important research questions for clinical practice, recognizing and addressing common but suboptimal approaches, and anticipating that the standard approaches of today may be insufficient for tomorrow. This results in the development and implementation of new methodologies and tools for the design, conduct, analyses, and reporting of research studies. These new methodologies directly impact the studies conducted within the network and have a broad and long-lasting impact on the field, enhancing the scientific value and efficiency of generations of research studies. This article describes innovations from the ARLG in diagnostic studies, observational studies, and clinical trials evaluating interventions for the prevention and treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Priorities and Progress in Diagnostic Research by the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group

The advancement of infectious disease diagnostics, along with studies devoted to infections caused by gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, is a top scientific priority of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG). Diagnostic tests for infectious diseases are rapidly evolving and improving. However, the availability of rapid tests designed to determine antibacterial resistance or susceptibility directly in clinical specimens remains limited, especially for gram-negative organisms. Additionally, the clinical impact of many new tests, including an understanding of how best to use them to inform optimal antibiotic prescribing, remains to be defined. This review summarizes the recent work of the ARLG toward addressing these unmet needs in the diagnostics field and describes future directions for clinical research aimed at curbing the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group: Scientific Advancements and Future Directions

In this overview, we describe important contributions from the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) to patient care, clinical trials design, and mentorship while outlining future priorities. The ARLG research agenda is focused on 3 key areas: gram-positive infections, gram-negative infections, and diagnostics. The ARLG has developed an innovative approach to clinical trials design, the desirability of outcome ranking (DOOR), which uses an ordinal measure of global outcome to assess both benefits and harms. DOOR was initially applied to observational studies to determine optimal dosing of vancomycin for methicillin-resistant Staphylcococcus aureus bacteremia and the efficacy of ceftazidime-avibactam versus colistin for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales infection. DOOR is being successfully applied to the analysis of interventional trials and, in collaboration with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for use in registrational trials. In the area of diagnostics, the ARLG developed Master Protocol for Evaluating Multiple Infection Diagnostics (MASTERMIND), an innovative design that allows simultaneous testing of multiple diagnostic platforms in a single study. This approach will be used to compare molecular assays for the identification of fluoroquinolone-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (MASTER GC) and to compare rapid diagnostic tests for bloodstream infections. The ARLG has initiated a first-in-kind randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in participants with cystic fibrosis who are chronically colonized with Pseudomonas aeruginosa to assess the pharmacokinetics and antimicrobial activity of bacteriophage therapy. Finally, an engaged and highly trained workforce is critical for continued and future success against antimicrobial drug resistance. Thus, the ARLG has developed a robust mentoring program targeted to each stage of research training to attract and retain investigators in the field of antimicrobial resistance research.

Under the Hood: The Scientific Leadership, Clinical Operations, Statistical and Data Management, and Laboratory Centers of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group

Developing and implementing the scientific agenda of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) by soliciting input and proposals, transforming concepts into clinical trials, conducting those trials, and translating trial data analyses into actionable information for infectious disease clinical practice is the collective role of the Scientific Leadership Center, Clinical Operations Center, Statistical and Data Management Center, and Laboratory Center of the ARLG. These activities include shepherding concept proposal applications through peer review; identifying, qualifying, training, and overseeing clinical trials sites; recommending, developing, performing, and evaluating laboratory assays in support of clinical trials; and designing and performing data collection and statistical analyses. This article describes key components involved in realizing the ARLG scientific agenda through the activities of the ARLG centers.

What is the role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in the care of diagnostically challenging OPAT patients? Illustrative cases and literature review

Optimal care of patients requiring long-term outpatient parenteral or oral antimicrobial therapy by infectious diseases (ID) specialists is facilitated by an accurate microbiologic diagnosis. Close collaboration between ID specialists and the clinical microbiology laboratory for routine or specialized molecular testing can result in more accurate diagnoses, streamlined antimicrobial regimens, and improved patient outcomes.