NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Using a multiplex gastrointestinal PCR (GI-PCR) panel in children with infectious diarrhea can speed up appropriate prescription of antibiotics, a new study suggests.
"The GI-PCR's results impacted the medical management of gastroenteritis for almost one-fourth of the children, and especially the prescription of appropriate antibiotic treatment before stool culture results," Dr. Jeanne Truong of the Robert Debre University Hospital, in Paris, and colleagues report in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Few studies have examined the impact of using multiplex PCR on pediatric treatment decisions, they researchers note. To investigate, they assessed the use of a GI-PCR panel allowing for simultaneous detection of 22 pathogens in a single stool sample in 172 children (median age, 22 months) with gastroenteritis.
In patients with diarrhea, indications for stool cultures included mucous/bloody acute diarrhea (76%), traveler's diarrhea (54%), diarrhea lasting more than 15 days (20%), epidemic/family context of diarrhea (14%), severe sepsis (10%), and chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD, 6%).
The median period between stool collection and receipt of GI-PCR results was 21 hours. Prior to sharing GI-PCR results with physicians, approximately 10.5% of children had received treatment with antibiotics. Additionally, 36.6% of patients had been or were hospitalized prior to receiving GI-PCR results. A total of 96 patients (55.8%) returned home with symptomatic therapy.
