Yeast Species Identification from Positive Blood Culture in just 20 Minutes

The new Candida QuickFISH BC Rapid Molecular Diagnostic Test can positively identify C. albicans, C. glabrata, and C. parapsilosis, directly from yeast-positive blood cultures in just 20 minutes. The CE marked, nucleic acid–based test enables the microbiologist to report pathogen-identification results 2 to 5 days earlier than conventional methods. This enables clinicians, consultant microbiologists and hospital pharmacists to better optimise therapy for patients with fungaemia. Ensuring that the most appropriate antifungal agent is prescribed sooner, results in improved patient outcomes, shorter hospital stays and reduced treatment costs.

QuickFISH™ is a patented, new technology that significantly advances time-to-result and ease-of-use. It is manufactured by AdvanDx and is exclusively available in the UK from Alpha Laboratories.

The QuickFISH range already includes diagnostic assays that rapidly identify bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococci and gram-negative rods. With the launch of the new Candida QuickFISH assay, the AdvanDx QuickFISH portfolio can now additionally identify the most common pathogens causing fungaemia in a hospital setting.

Candidemia is one of the most significant hospital-associated infections. It is a particularly serious risk factor for immune-compromised patients, such as those in intensive care, receiving transplants or being treated in oncology units. Conventional assays can take up to 5 days or longer to provide an accurate species identification. Newer methods such as MALDI-TOF can also be challenging. Therefore, patients are often treated empirically either with fluconazole, a relatively inexpensive, generic antifungal agent, or with an echinocandin, a newer class of antifungal drugs demonstrating broad activity against Candida species but substantially more expensive. As a result, patients often receive inappropriate, inadequate, or sometimes unnecessarily broad therapy.

Find out more and view a video of the QuickFISH protocol at www.alphalabs.co.uk/quickfish.