E Test Strips Applied to Bronchoalveolar Lavage for Suspicion of Hospital-acquired Pneumonia to Accelerate Antibiogram Analysis.

To rapidly adapt or deescalate the initially broad antibiotic treatment, an antibiogram analysis is required. E test strips have successfully provided an antibiogram 24 h after having been directly applied to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). An open-label, prospective cohort study of consecutive patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia will be conducted with the aim of validating a new method increasing the rapidity of antibiogram analysis compared to standard methods of culture. This antibiogram will be provided by E test strips directly applied to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples and analyzed from the 6th up to the 24th hour after its completion. The occurrence of major errors (S with E test method, I or R with standard method) and minor errors (I or R with E test method and S with standard method)will be observed and a comparison of H6, H10 and H24 results performed.

Inclusion Criteria:

• all patients with suspected HAP undergoing BAL will be eligible

Exclusion Criteria:

• contraindications for BAL (PaO2/FIO2 <100, risk of bronchoscopy-related haemorrhagic complications), secondary exclusion of patients with negative cultures, defined by a threshold of bacteria <104 CFU/ml.