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Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a frequent and serious complication of prolonged mechanical ventilation. Many patients develop a bacterial infection without meeting clinical diagnostic criteria. Surveillance samples to detect such cryptic infection could have clinical value.
To test this hypothesis, researchers (including employees of Accelerate Diagnostics, which supported the study) conducted a single-site cohort study among mechanically ventilated adults at risk for VAP (N=33). Seventy-seven respiratory samples were obtained by mini–bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and divided for testing by two methods. The clinical laboratory performed semiquantitative microbiological culture, which was considered positive if ≥104 organisms/mL were…