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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Gastrointestinal Infections
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1776421
Brief Report

Utility of BioFire FilmArray Gastrointestinal Panel in the Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Infections

Rama Gupta
1   Department of Microbiology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Veenu Gupta
1   Department of Microbiology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Ajit Sood
2   Department of Gastroenterology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Arshdeep Singh
2   Department of Gastroenterology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Jyoti Chaudhary
1   Department of Microbiology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Menal Gupta
1   Department of Microbiology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
,
Manisha Aggarwal
1   Department of Microbiology, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Background Conventional diagnostic methods like culture and microscopy are time-consuming and have low diagnostic yield for gastrointestinal infections. New rapid molecular methods such as multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have recently been introduced for etiological diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of the FilmArray gastrointestinal panel (GIP) in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal infections.

Materials and Methods This is a retrospective study performed in the microbiology department of a tertiary care hospital. Stool samples were received and processed according to the manufacturer's instructions by FilmArray GIP. Stool culture and routine microscopy were also performed.

Results The mean age of the 32 patients was 46 ± 24.2 years and with a male-to-female ratio of 1:1. Out of 32 stool samples received for testing by BioFire GIP, 23 samples (71.9%) were found to be positive for one or the other target. A total of 41 targets were detected from 23 positive patients, with predominant bacterial etiology (65.9%) followed by parasitic (31.7%) and viral (4.9%). Giardia lamblia was the most common (26.8%) target detected in all age groups. Additionally, in 56.5% of patients, more than one target was detected. The stool culture was positive in 2 of the 16 patients (12.5%).

Conclusion The FilmArray GIP showed very good diagnostic performance compared with culture for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal infections. Further studies are needed to determine whether multiplex PCR improves patient outcomes and reduces costs.

Keywords

gastrointestinal infections - FilmArray gastrointestinal panel - stool culture

Ethical Statement

Not applicable.


Author Contributions

All authors contributed equally to the article.


Data Availability Statement

There is no data associated with this work.




Publication History

Received: 11 July 2023

Accepted: 02 August 2023

Article published online:
06 February 2024

© 2024. Gastroinstestinal Infection Society of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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