A Novel Microfluidic Assay for Rapid Phenotypic Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Bacteria Detected in Clinical Blood Cultures.

Background: Appropriate antibiotic therapy is critical in the management of severe sepsis and septic shock to reduce mortality, morbidity and health costs. New methods for rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing are needed because of increasing resistance rates to standard treatment.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a novel microfluidic method and the potential to directly apply this method on positive blood cultures.