Abstract

Bloodstream infections are a serious health threat. They can lead to sepsis and death. The gold standard for diagnosing a bloodstream infection, is trough culturing of a blood sample and monitoring it for bacterial growth. This can be done manually, by periodic visual inspection of the blood culture bottle (BCB), or automatically with a blood culture automate. These automates are however often inaccessible in low-resource settings for logistical, financial, or support reasons. To ease adoption of blood culture testing in low-resource settings, the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Ghent University have designed an alternative device which aims to be universal, intuitive and accurate. It is made to be compatible with most commercial BCB types so alternatives are available during supply shortages and because of the devices’ modular design, it can be easily adapted to the required size of the lab, reducing the cost for smaller labs and easing adoption further.
Our system combines several methods of growth detection to achieve an optimal result. The main detection method is based on the turbidity of the sample. Tests with our previous turbidity-based prototypes in the lab have had promising results and tests in a realistic setting are in progress. Growth is also monitored with a camera which has a view of the bottom of the bottle. This way, forming of colonies or biofilms can be detected. Lastly, when the BCB has a colorimetric pH indicator, this is monitored as well with a separate colour sensor.