BioFire Diagnostics Inc. today announced new data from Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington demonstrating how the FilmArray Respiratory Panel (RP) improves detection and reporting turnaround time for respiratory viruses. Investigators at Seattle Children’s were able to achieve a greater than fourfold reduction in average and median turnaround time using FilmArray RP compared to standard processes. Additionally, 81% of patients testing positive for Influenza A or Influenza B received a prescription of Tamiflu® (oseltamivir) within three hours of discharge. Current guidelines call for the medication to be given within 48 hours of symptom onset in order to be most effective.
Investigator Min Xu, MD, PhD, Seattle Children’s commented, “The implementation of FilmArray RP in our core laboratory significantly decreased the time required to detect and report respiratory viruses. Patients with influenza were treated rapidly and appropriately, which had previously not been possible.” She also noted, “Detection of other viral agents assisted physicians in the differential diagnosis of respiratory syndromes and isolation of patients admitted to the hospital. Overall, we implemented a molecular-based efficient diagnostic testing process in our core laboratory for the first time. Our results demonstrate that molecular technology can be successfully deployed in a non-specialty, multidisciplinary core laboratory.”
The study, titled “Implementation of FilmArray Respiratory Viral Panel in a Core Laboratory Improves Testing Turnaround Time and Patient Care,” included 2,537 specimens from pediatric patients prospectively collected and tested between December 2011 and April 2012. The average and median turnaround times were 1.6 and 1.4 hours, respectively, in contrast to 7.0 and 6.5 hours documented one year previously at an on-site reference laboratory using direct fluorescence assay (DFA). During the study period, rhinovirus was detected in 20 percent and coronavirus in 6 percent of samples using the FilmArray RP. These viruses would not have been detected with DFA.
The study was published in January 2013 issue of American Journal of Clinical Pathology.
For further information, please visit www.BioFireDx.com.
