title: PCR for the diagnosis of sepsis: hope or hype?
abstract: Molecular biology has not yet fully reached its ambitious goals in clinical bacteriology. Notwithstanding the tremendous technical challenges, the detection of nucleic acids directly from the blood of septic patients has not been shown cost-effective or even clinically relevant. Yet the potential for rapid molecular detection of circulating DNA (DNAemia) coupled to an educated antimicrobial drug adaptation has been repetitively advocated as a predicted breakthrough. Why do we still remain in such uncertainty?
authors.affiliation: Genomic Research and Bacteriology Laboratories, Service of Infectious Diseases, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland. jacques.schrenzel@genomic.ch
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schrenzel
mesh_terms: D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000191:economics*; D018805:Sepsis / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality*