Presentation of clinical data from a pneumonia study on multi-pathogen infections at ICAAC 2014 and DGHM 2014

Rapid Multiplex PCR assays confirmed as valuable addition to conventional testing methods

Holzgerlingen, Germany - Curetis AG, a developer of next-level molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced new data on the clinical performance of its Unyvero P50 pneumonia cartridge in multi-pathogen infections.

A study conducted by researchers from private laboratory medicine firm MVZ Dr. Eberhard & Partner (Dortmund, Germany) analyzed pneumonia patient samples with both Curetis' Unyvero P50 pneumonia cartridge and with classical microbiology culture. The investigator-initiated study determined >80% sensitivity at >95% specificity for pathogen identification with Unyvero P50. Of note, 54% of all cases had polymicrobial infections, many of them involving between 3 and 6 different pathogens. In the trial, Unyvero P50 found additional polymicrobial infections and detected 17 pathogens, all of which were not identified by microbiology culture. In contrast, in 6 cases classical culture identified a total of 8 pathogens not detected by Unyvero P50.

„[<201E>][<201E>]The results suggest that combining rapid molecular methods such as the Unyvero solution with traditional microbiology culture can be a huge advantage in assessing the optimum treatment regime," said Dr. med. Arthur Pranada, a specialist for microbiology, virology and infectious disease epidemiology at MVZ Eberhard and lead author of the study. "This is of great importance in many polymicrobial infections and with challenging native respiratory samples."

"We are excited to see our laboratory partners and customers conduct clinical studies on important medical questions such as polymicrobial infections," added Dr. med. Anne Thews, Medical Director of Curetis. "The data show that both methods are synergistic, with Unyvero delivering results after only 4 to 5 hours compared to several days for classical microbiology."

The data have been presented at the recent Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Washington D.C. (U.S.) and will also be presented at the upcoming conference Microbiology and Infection 2014 in Dresden (Germany), a joint event of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) and the Society of Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM).

During Microbiology and Infection 2014, Curetis will host a symposium on the "Clinical Relevance of Rapid Infectious Disease Diagnostics". It will take place on Monday, October 6, from 12:15pm - 1:15 pm CET (Room: Konferenz 1 / International Congress Center Dresden). The symposium will be chaired by Prof. Dr. Helmut Fickenscher (Kiel University). Presentations will be held by Dr. Reno Frei (University of Basel) and Prof. Dr. Maria Dé[<00E9>][<00E9>]ja (Charité[<00E9>][<00E9>] - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin).

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