Evaluation of pathogen from the FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis panel and recommendations on atypical findings

BACKGROUND

 Infectious meningoencephalitis is a potentially fatal clinical condition that causes inflammation of the central nervous system secondary to the installation of different microorganisms. The FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis panel allows the simultaneous detection of 14 pathogens with results in about one hour.

OBJECTIVE

 This study is based on retrospectively evaluating the implementation of the FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis panel in a hospital environment, highlighting the general results and, especially, analyzing the consistency of the test results against the clinical and laboratory conditions of the patients.

METHODS

 Data were collected through the results reported by the BioFire FilmArray system software from the meningitis/encephalitis panel. The correlated laboratory tests used in our analysis, when available, included biochemical, cytological, direct and indirect microbiological tests.

RESULTS

 In the analyzed period, there were 496 samples with released results. Of the total of 496 samples analyzed, 88 (17.75%) were considered positive, and 90 pathogens were detected, and in 2 of these (2.27%) there was co-detection of pathogens. Viruses were the agents most frequently found within the total number of pathogens detected. Of the 496 proven samples, 20 (4.03%) were repeated, 5 of which were repeated due to invalid results, 6 due to the detection of multiple pathogens and 9 due to disagreement between the panel results and the other laboratory tests and/or divergence of the clinical-epidemiological picture. Of these 20 repeated samples, only 4 of them (20%) maintained the original result after repeating the test, with 16 (80%) being non-reproducible. The main factor related to the disagreement of these 16 samples during retesting was the detection of bacterial agents without any relationship with other laboratory tests or with the patients' clinical condition.

CONCLUSION

 In our study, simply reproducing tests with atypical results from the FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis panel proved, in most cases, effective and sufficient for interpreting these results.

The effects of antidiuretic hormone and state of potassium balance on the renin-angiotensin system in rats with diabetes insipidus

1. The influence of ADH and the state of potassium balance on the renin-angiotensin system was studied in rats with hereditary diabetes insipidus (DI rats). 2. Plasma renin concentration in DI rats was higher than in control Long-Evans rats. 3. Spontaneous reversal of the hypokalaemia normally found in DI rats did not reduce plasma renin concentration (p.r.c.), suggesting that potassium deficiency does not contribute significantly to the elevation of p.r.c. in DI rats. Similarly, a low potassium diet failed to further increase p.r.c. in DI rats. 4. In contrast, the p.r.c. of DI rats was significantly diminished by a high potassium intake both in the presence and absence of ADH. A highly significant inverse correlation was found between p.r.c. and urinary potassium excretion in both ADH-treated and untreated DI rats on low, normal and high potassium diets. 5. Plasma renin concentration was significantly lower in ADH-treated than in untreated DI rats on a high potassium intake, suggesting that the inhibitory effects of ADH and potassium are additive. 6. ADH consistently reduced p.r.c. in DI rats independent of the state of potassium balance. 7. ADH and potassium may inhibit renin secretion via different mechanisms of action.