We Can Now Find Causative Microorganism Inducing Infection by Small Specimen Test
- Research team of Professor Yoo Won-Joon and Professor Shin Chang-Ho develops a new method of microbial identification
- Shorter identification time required for higher identification rate, compared with conventional methods
A Korean research team has presented a new method of microbial identification for finding infection microorganism in pediatric and adolescent osteoarticular (bone joint) infections, that which is faster and more effective than conventional methods.
When infection occurs, the first thing we need to do is to identify what the infection microorganisms are. This is because there are different antibiotics for different causative microorganisms. The task of finding out what type of microorganism caused the infection is called “(microbial) identification.” If this task is not properly done or is delayed, treatment gets delayed as well. Therefore, a prompt and accurate identification is necessary for appropriate treatment.
On November 11th, the research team of Professor Yoo Won-Joon and Professor Shin Chang-Ho, in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital, presented the results of their recent study, which was a study comparing the new identification method with the old identification methods based on 40 pediatric or adolescent patients with osteoarticular infections.
The research team devised a new blood culture bottle (BCB) method of identification. It is a method of cultivating a small specimen of the patient’s blood in a bottle by aspirating the specimen with syringes and inoculating it into the bottle. According to the study, the new BCB method was superior than the conventional methods of the swab or tissue cultures in many ways.
First, the identification rate was superior. Identification rate is the rate of success in finding the causative microorganism. According to the study’s analysis of osteoarticular infections patients, the identification rate by BCB was approximately 68%(27 patients). This rate was much higher than the identification rate of swab culture (45%(18 patients)) and tissue culture (38%(15 patients)).
Second, the speed of identification was faster. With swab culture and tissue culture methods, identification process took 4.3 days and 4.4 days on average, respectively. On the other hand, the method of BCB took 3.5 days on average, therefore it was one day faster than the conventional methods.
Osteoarticular infections, of which osteomyelitis and septic arthritis are most representative, can cause damage to or deformation of the growth plate if proper treatment is not given. Even though identification should be a speedy and accurate task, conventional methods have often failed to provide such speed or accuracy.
The identification method devised newly by the research team is a method of cultivating the microorganisms with small specimen aspirated unto the tips of syringes. This is especially suitable for pediatric and adolescent patients, from whom the quantity of specimen drawn are often small, making it hard for the identification to succeed. Moreover, because this new BCB method uses the same tools as the previously existing BCB method, one of the pros of this new BCB method is that it can be put into medical practice right away.
“By using this new method of microorganism detection, we would be able to prescribe appropriate antibiotics sooner, making treatment much more effective,” said Professor Yoo Won-Joon. “This means that patients would no longer have to undergo surgery several times due to complications from osteoarticular infections,” he added.
The research team’s study has been published in the recent volume of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, which is the most prestigious international journal in the field of orthopedics.