Molecular approaches in the diagnosis of sepsis in neutropenic patients with haematological malignances.

Introduction. Sepsis is a major cause of significant morbidity and mortality in neutropenic patients. Blood culture remains the gold standard in the microbiological diagnosis of bacterial or fungal bloodstream infections, but it has clear limits of rapid- ity and sensitivity. The objective of the study was to compare the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with auto- mated blood cultures (BC) method in detection in whole blood of pathogens in febrile neutropenic patients with hematological malignancies. Methods. A total of 166 consecutive febrile neutropenic patients were enrolled. Blood samples for cultures and SeptiFast testing were obtained at the onset of fever, before the implementation of empirical antibiotic therapy.