standard inoculum protocol (sip) for bacterial identification using an automated microbial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing system (amiast)

Accelerated Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing in Blood Culture Bottles

Sepsis, an important global health problem, is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection. The Global Burden of Diseases Study estimated that there were 48.9 million cases of sepsis and 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide in 2017, which accounted for almost 20% of all global deaths1. Around 2/3rd of bloodstream infections (BSI) causing mortality are due to gram-negative bacterial pathogens2. The leading causes of mortality amongst gram-negatives (GN) are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii,&#160;which account for around 40% of cases amongst 33 bacterial pathogens2.
Blood cultures remain the gold standard for diagnosing BSI, and rapid microbial identification along with antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results is the key to management. It has been estimated that there is a 9% increase in odds of mortality with each-hour delay in instituting appropriate antimicrobials in sepsis3. The turnaround time (TAT) of microbiologically positive blood culture reports with AST results is around 48-72 h with the available microbiological tools in resource-limited settings, even with automated systems. As a result of this subpar TAT, broad-spectrum antimicrobials are used empirically, contributing to the burgeoning problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Recognizing this dire need to reduce TAT for microbiological culture techniques for sepsis, EUCAST and CLSI are moving towards performing AST directly from positively flagged blood culture bottles (+aBC)4,5.
In 2018, EUCAST first introduced the rapid AST (RAST) method for determining AST by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method at short incubation times, i.e., 4 h, 6 h and 8 h, directly from +aBC6,7. The method is presently validated for determining AST for +aBCs containing one of the 8 most common causes of BSI namely E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, and A. baumannii complex&#160;amongst gram-negatives and Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, and Streptococcus pneumoniae amongst gram-positives8.The breakpoints for AST determination at various time intervals are provided as per microbial species listed above. Hence, before categorical interpretation of AST results, microbial identification is necessary. However, the RAST standard does not specify the method to enable microbial identification within this time frame.
The majority of studies evaluating the EUCAST RAST method in their setting have used mass spectrometry-based microbial identification after short incubation on plated media to identify micro-organisms9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. However, mass spectrometry instruments are not widely available, especially in low to middle-income countries (LMICs), which greatly limits the potential usefulness of this method. Few studies have reported implementation of this method in their centers without using mass spectrometry18,19,20. Tay&#351;i et al.18 reported a broad categorization of GN amongst Enterobacterales, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter spp. based on gram stain morphology and oxidase test before interpreting AST results. In other studies from this center, by Gupta et al.19 and Siddiqui et al.20, species-level microbial identification was done by preparing a bacterial pellet from the positively flagged blood-broth mixture and inoculating it on the conventional biochemical tests. While Tay&#351;i et al.18 did not comment upon the accuracy of microbial identification with their approach, Gupta et al.19 reported that with their approach in 165/176 (94%) cases, a RAST reportable gram-negative (RR-GN), i.e., either of E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, and A. baumannii complex. However, with the latter approach, the reading of RAST results was done retrospectively using 8 h zone diameter breakpoints only after the full incubation of conventional biochemical results i.e., 18-24 h post-inoculation, and the average time for reporting was around 2 days.
To reduce the TAT of clinical reports further, we propose an alternative methodology to enable early identification of GN present in +aBCs using aMIAST. Before the introduction of mass spectrometry-based microbial identification systems, these automated identification systems were considered the standard of care for microbial identification, where identification was enabled by colorimetric and/or fluorometric changes induced by test bacteria when inoculated in miniaturized biochemical tests harbored in a cassette and matching the results with their isolate database. The average time to identification in these systems is around 4 h to 8 h however, they are limited by the fact that the manufacturers recommend overnight growth of microbes before their respective identification cards can be inoculated. This requirement greatly limits their usefulness in reducing the time to report.
Few studies have evaluated methods to directly identify microbes from +aBCs using these automated systems21,22,23,24,25,26,27. In the case of +aBCs containing monomorphic GN, the majority of studies showed excellent concordance between direct inoculation from bacterial pellet made from positive blood-broth mixture and standard colony incubation. However, in the case of gram-positives, the concordance rates were suboptimal. As the average time to positivity of +aBCs is between 8 h and 16 h and identification of GN takes ~4 h to 8 h in an automated microbial identification system, we hypothesize that by employing direct inoculation protocol in the automated microbial identification, we can complete the clinical reporting of +aBCs with GN having a RR-GN within 24 h of sample receiving.
Setting for the study 
The present study was conducted in the clinical bacteriology laboratory of a 950-bed, academic, tertiary care institute of national importance (INI) in Central India from January to October 2023. The laboratory is equipped with a continuous blood culture monitoring system (CBCMS) and aMIAST. The bacteriology laboratory is functional round-the-clock with the availability of technicians and microbiologists for processing and reporting any positively flagged blood culture bottle (+aBCs).
Microbial methods used here 
The workflow of the study is shown in Figure 1. The +aBCs showing monomorphic GNs (+naBC) were processed by direct inoculation of corresponding identification cards to enable identification and AST using EUCAST RAST protocol. These results were compared with the standard-of-care (SoC) method for +aBCs i.e., subculturing on conventional plated media through sheep blood agar (SBA), chocolate agar (CA), and MacConkey agar (MA), incubated aerobically for 16 h to 24 h followed by identification and AST cards given by aMIAST when isolated colonies appear. Blood cultures showing gram-positive cocci, gram-positive bacilli, budding yeast cells, and &#8805;2 different micro-organisms on initial gram staining or plated media were excluded from the study.

Author Spotlight: Accelerating Diagnostic Accuracy with Direct Identification of Gram-Negatives from Blood Culture Bottles

Direkte mikrobiel identifikation ved hjælp af et automatiseret mikrobielt identifikationssystem for at lette EUCAST RAST-metoden uden massespektrometri

This research aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Gram-negatives directly from positively flag blood culture bottles by automated microbial identification system. The purpose is to utilize it as a tool for early clinical reporting by EUCAST rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing method. EUCAST RAST method was recently introduced in 2018 to enable reporting of anti-microbial susceptibility testing results within four to eight hours of positive flagging of automated blood culture bottles.It involves performing everywhere disk diffusion method directly from positively flagged bottle and reading results at either four, six, or eight hours. For clinical reporting by EUCAST RAST method, the microbial identification is a prerequisite for determining the interpretative category of AST results. The major challenge in implementing this method is early identification of the microbes within eight hours, especially in resource poor settings, which lacks mass spectrometry.We found that the direct inoculum protocol was around 94%accurate in identifying a RAST reportable Gram-negative, which includes Escherichia coli, Kiebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii complex. This approach of identifying Gram-negatives directly was around four times faster than the standard approach of identification after overnight incubation. We will now focus on assessing the impact of this approach of clinical reporting in Gram-negative sepsis on patient outcomes in terms of length of hospitalization and mortality rate.Furthermore, it can also be used as a tool to reduce anti-microbial usage to facilitate anti-microbial stewardship.

Standard Inoculum Protocol (SIP) til bakteriel identifikation ved hjælp af et automatiseret mikrobielt identifikations- og antimikrobielt følsomhedstestsystem (aMIAST)

Til at begynde med skal du pode skillevæggen på en automatiseret blodkulturflaske indeholdende monomorfe gramnegative organismer, med 70 % isopropylalkohol, inde i et klasse II A biosikkerhedsskab. Træk derefter en milliliter blodbouillonblanding i en steril sprøjte udstyret med en 21-gauge nål. Fordel en stor dråbe af blandingen på overfladen af et belagt medie.Efter at have strøet pladerne, inkuberes kulturerne ved 37 grader Celsius i 18 til 24 timer. Undersøg pladerne for isolerede kolonier inde i biosikkerhedsskabet. Dispenser derefter tre milliliter sterilt saltvand i et aMIAT-rør med en dispenserflaske.Saml nu tre til fem morfologisk lignende kolonier op med en steril lige podetråd. Overfør inokulummet til det første rør. Brug saltvand og et densitometer til at justere affjedringens turbiditet mellem 0.47 og 0.63 McFarland.Placer derefter en kapillærfastgørelse til det gramnegative aMIAT-identifikationskort i det første rør. Placer de valgte kort på kassetten. Læg nu kassetten på plads i påfyldningskammeret med prøvestregkoden vendt indad.Luk døren, og tryk på Fyld på brugergrænsefladeskærmen. Når påfyldningscyklussen er afsluttet, blinker den blå indikatorlampe på systemet. Overfør nu kassetten fra påfyldningskammeret til påfyldningskammeret.Fjern kassetteaffaldet, når påfyldningen er afsluttet. Subkultur den resterende suspension i rørene på CLED-agar for at kontrollere renheden af isolaterne. Standardinokulumprotokollen identificerede 105 ud af 204 testede isolater som RAST-rapporterbare gramnegative, hvor Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa og Acinetobacter baumannii-kompleks var de primære organismer, der blev identificeret.

Research

JoVE Journal

Medicine

Standard Inoculum Protocol (SIP) for Bacterial Identification Using an Automated Microbial Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing System (aMIAST)

Direct Microbial Identification using An Automated Microbial Identification System to Facilitate the EUCAST RAST Method Without Mass Spectrometry

Gram-negative (GN) sepsis is a medical emergency where management in resource-limited settings relies on conventional microbiological culture techniques ...

Direct Inoculum Protocol (DIP) for Bacterial Identification Using an Automated Microbial Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing System (aMIAST)

Direct Inoculum Protocol (DIP) til bakteriel identifikation ved hjælp af et automatiseret mikrobielt identifikations- og antimikrobielt følsomhedstestsystem (aMIAST)

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test (AST) Using the EUCAST Rapid Antimicrobial Sensitivity Testing (RAST) 

Antimikrobiel følsomhedstest (AST) ved hjælp af EUCAST's hurtige antimikrobielle følsomhedstest (RAST) 

Quality Control Testing for Rapid Antimicrobial Sensitivity Testing (RAST)

Kvalitetskontroltest for hurtig antimikrobiel følsomhedstest (RAST)