Patent ID: 11866762
Assignee: QVELLA CORPORATION
Field: Biotechnology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 0:
1. A method of performing rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing, the method comprising:
initiating blood culture by:
obtaining whole blood from a patient and contacting the whole blood with growth media, thereby obtaining a blood culture mixture; and
incubating the blood culture mixture under conditions suitable for promoting microbial growth;

after having initiated incubation of the blood culture mixture, but prior to a determination of positivity by conventional blood culture:
obtaining a first sample from the blood culture mixture;
separating microbial cells from the first sample to obtain a first suspension of microbial cells;
employing the first suspension of microbial cells to perform a microbial identification assay, the microbial identification assay identifying, from a panel of microbial cell types, a microbial cell type associated with microbial cells residing with the first sample;
obtaining a second sample from the blood culture mixture;
separating microbial cells from the second sample to obtain a second suspension of microbial cells; and
employing the second suspension of microbial cells to perform an antimicrobial susceptibility assay, the antimicrobial susceptibility assay determining a measure of the effectiveness of one or more antibiotics on microbial cells within the second sample, the one or more antibiotics being selected based on results from the microbial identification assay; and

providing results from the antimicrobial susceptibility assay prior to the determination of positivity by conventional blood culture.