Role of a Respiratory Viral Panel in the Clinical Management of Pediatric Inpatients

Abstract

This study lacked sufficient evidence to claim an association between a positive RVP and LOS in pediatric patients, adjusting for their underlying diagnosis. However, we found that a positive RVP was associated with a shorter duration of intravenous antibiotic administration in certain groups of patients and those with some common respiratory diagnoses. These findings help clarify the utility of rapid viral testing in the management of hospitalized pediatric patients.

Contribution of the FilmArray Respiratory Panel in the management of adult and pediatric patients attending the emergency room during 2015–2016 influenza epidemics: An interventional study

“…Keske et al (2018) observed that in addition to providing a rapid molecular test result, offering training sessions for physicians about the diagnosis and the management of respiratory tract infections could decrease antibiotic use, at least for children. Other studies did not find a difference in antibiotic use when testing adult or pediatric patients with molecular techniques (Hernes et al, 2014;Rogers et al, 2015;Andrews et al, 2017;Semret et al, 2017;Trabattoni et al, 2018); however, some pediatric studies report a shorter antimicrobial treatment duration (Rogers et al, 2015;Schulert et al, 2013). In these studies, the results of molecular tests were not delivered in a timely manner, which can explain the lack of impact on the initial prescription of antimicrobial treatment even though there was an impact on the duration.…”

Impact of Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing for Respiratory Pathogens on Healthcare Resource Utilization for Pediatric Inpatients

“…These studies have shown a decrease in antibiotic use after introduction of mPCR testing 4 ; and shorter duration of antibiotic therapy for those with positive tests and common respiratory diagnoses, 8 or those cared for by specific admitting services. 6 The impact of mPCR testing in other clinical settings has been inconsistent; use of rapid viral testing has shown little impact on antibiotic use in ambulatory and emergency department settings. 2,7 This heterogeneity in findings could indicate that provider decisions for antibiotic use in the emergency department or ambulatory setting may be more impacted by clinical factors (eg, physical examination or past medical history) and less impacted by mPCR test results.…”

“…5 Previous work assessing the impact of mPCR testing on clinical outcomes such as duration of antibiotic therapy or length of stay in pediatric clinical settings has shown inconsistent results. 2,6 These studies assessed mPCR use in the emergency department 7 or in an ambulatory care setting, 2 limited subjects to those tested with mPCR 6 or those with specific diagnoses, 8 and did not adjust for seasonal trends. 4 From July to September 2012, New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital transitioned from the use of non-mPCR testing methods to the use of mPCR testing to identify respiratory pathogens.…”

Clinical Evaluation of the Luminex NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel

“…Moreover, rapid diagnostic tests have been shown to reduce length of hospital stay and the costs for testing patients with respiratory tract infection (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). Various commercial molecular diagnostic assays, especially emerging multiplex technologies which detect and identify multiple respiratory pathogens, have been adopted by clinical microbiology laboratories.…”