• Adults (total of 374) who came to the emergency department (ED) between September 25, 2020, and June 1, 2021, with symptoms of CAP, were enrolled in the trial, which was run and overseen by researchers at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway.

• Patients were randomly assigned to receive either standard-of-care microbiologic methods (blood culture, pneumococcal urine test, and an in-house PCR test) or rapid syndromic PCR testing using the BioFire FilmArray Pneumonia Plus panel (FAP Plus), which detects 27 bacterial and viral respiratory pathogens.

• Patients with suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) were more than three times more likely to receive pathogen-directed antibiotic treatment if they had quick syndromic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, according to the experiment than if they underwent traditional microbiological testing. 

• Additionally, they got pathogen-directed therapy more quickly.

• Rapid syndromic PCR testing, according to the researchers, may be used in place of or in addition to culture-based diagnostic methods for patients with lower respiratory infections.

• The results were published in JAMA Network Open. 

• As per the researchers,  "a faster microbiological diagnosis allows for directed therapy, which has been shown in previous studies to improve outcomes, limit antibiotic overuse, and prevent antimicrobial resistance."

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