Rapid identification of pathogens in blood culture with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH).

Rapid identification of pathogens in bloodstream infections is of utmost importance to improve survival of septic patients. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) accelerates the identification of most frequent bacterial and yeast pathogens of sepsis. In this study, 210 positive blood cultures were tested with FISH method and the results were evaluated comparing to the traditional cultivation based results. Overall agreement between FISH and conventional identification was 91.4%, with better results for Gram-negative bacteria than for Gram-positives (100% and 89.5%, respectively). FISH results were obtained within 1 hour. FISH may serve as a useful tool to supplement traditional microbiological methods for rapid, provisional identification of sepsis pathogens.