Rapid Detection of Bacteria from Blood Culture by an Electronic Nose

Peter Lykos¹, Pravin H. Patel², Chris Morong¹, Asha Joseph¹

¹Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616

²Microbiology Laboratory
Department of Clinical and Anatomic Pathology
Provident Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois 60615

ABSTRACT

The treatment of patients with bacteraemia, septicemia requires accurate and rapid identification of the pathogen so that the physician can be guided regarding the selection of the proper antimicrobial therapy. The usual procedure is to withdraw an aliquot of the positive blood culture sample for the gram staining and subculturing on the media for the growth and subsequent identification, and susceptibility determinations. It was noticed that during the process the microbiologist would sniff the effluent gases that are products of metabolism and in some cases guess the identity of the bacterium. That prompted us to engage in systematic investigation of two gram positive and two gram negative bacteria using an electronic nose that had been proven successful in distinguishing the odor from coffee beans from different sources. The investigation was successful in illustrating the efficacy of such a device in this clinical setting to distinguish Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis. A representative set of patterns obtained with this apparatus is displayed as well. No effort was made to determine an optimal set of sensors for some specific set of bacterial metabolism gaseous products.

Presented by Chris Morong at Fall 2000 Natl ACS Mtg in Chicago and published in J MICROBIOL 39(3): 213-218 SEP 2001. A sample figures are shown below.

For more information contact:
Dr. Peter Lykos
Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences
Illinois Institute of Technology Room 344
3101 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 60616
Phone 312.567.3430
Fax 312.567.3494
E mail: lykos@iit.edu

Fig. 2 Sensor voltages to acquire data below.