Assessment of a rapid diagnostic test based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to identify the most frequent pathogens causing hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Introduction: Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is a serious infection affecting patients in the hospital setting. This study aimed to evaluate a novel multiplex detection method using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technology to identify six primary bacterial pathogens responsible for HAP directly from respiratory samples.

Methods: A total of 119 clinical samples were analyzed by LAMP technology, including mainly bronchoalveolar lavages, endotracheal aspirates, and bronchoaspirates.

Results and discussion: The results of the LAMP and traditional culture methods showed an accuracy of 93.0%. In some discordant cases between culture and LAMP, multiplex PCR (FilmArray Pneumonia Panel) showed a strong correlation with the LAMP results, confirming the potential use of this technique as a diagnostic detection tool. The clinical sensitivity of the LAMP assay was 93.3% with a specificity of 92.0%. Correlation analysis revealed a weak negative relationship between bacterial load and time to positivity (r = -0.177, p = 0.05). This study underscores the potential of LAMP as a rapid and accurate tool for the diagnosis of HAP, facilitating the turnaround time for microbiology laboratory results, which is critical for improving the outcomes of patients with HAP.