Impact on the medical decision-making process of multiplex PCR assay for respiratory pathogens.

The objective of this study was to determine how clinicians make use of the modern multiplex PCR assays (MPAs) to manage patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We studied the use of MPAs in 1648 patients hospitalized for CAP over a 3-year period at the moment of the setup of the new PCR assay. We observed that the use of MPAs for the identification of multiple respiratory pathogens marks a radical change in the investigation of CAP etiology. Surprisingly, the contribution of MPAs to the medical decision-making process varies drastically according to the units of care.