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A new interesting article has been published in Infection. 2019 Dec; 47(6):945-953. doi: 10.1007/s15010-019-01320-7. Epub 2019 May 20. and titled:

Economic analysis of rapid multiplex polymerase chain reaction testing for meningitis/encephalitis in adult patients.

Authors of this article are:

Duff S, Hasbun R, Balada-Llasat JM, Zimmer L, Bozzette SA, Ginocchio CC.

A summary of the article is shown below:

PURPOSE: Many patients with suspected meningitis do not require hospitalization yet are admitted, often resulting in unnecessary care and additional cost. We assessed the possible economic impact of a rapid multiplex test for suspected adult community-acquired meningitis/encephalitis.METHODS: A model simulated diagnosis, clinical decisions, resource use/costs of standard of care (SOC) and two cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing strategies using the FDA-cleared BioFire® FilmArray® System (FA) which provides results in approximately one hour.RESULTS: Pathogens detected by FA caused approximately 74% of cases, 97% of which would be accurately diagnosed with FA. False positives and false negatives more often led to extended/unnecessary admission than inappropriate discharge/missed admission. Mean cost per case ranged from 16829 to 20791. A strategy of testing all suspected cases yielded greater savings (2213/case) than testing only those with abnormal CSF (812/case) and both were less expensive than SOC.CONCLUSION: This economic analysis demonstrates that FA can inform more appropriate clinician decisions resulting in cost savings with greater economic benefits achievable with syndromic testing of all cases, rather than SOC or targeted syndromic testing.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Cost; Encephalitis; FilmArray; Meningitis.

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