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Antibiotics
Special Issues
Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing and Rapid Diagnostics of Antimicrobial Resistance
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Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing and Rapid Diagnostics of Antimicrobial Resistance

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 737

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Grazia Bocci

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Clinical and Research Department, National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Lazzaro Spallanzani”—IRCCS, 00149 Rome, Italy
Interests: infectious disease; intensive care; antimicrobial resistance (AMR); human health risk; microbiology diagnostic; healthcare associated infections (HAIs)
Dr. Giulia Capecchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Clinical and Research Department, National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Lazzaro Spallanzani”—IRCCS, 00149 Rome, Italy
Interests: infectious disease; antimicrobial resistance (AMR); molecular microbiology; microbiology diagnostic; healthcare associated infections (HAIs)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a critical threat to global health, leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. The timely and accurate identification of resistant pathogens is essential for appropriate antimicrobial stewardship and improved clinical outcomes. This Special Issue focuses on recent advances and innovative strategies in antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) and rapid diagnostics of AMR.

We welcome original research articles, reviews, and technical reports that explore novel phenotypic and genotypic approaches to AST, molecular diagnostics, point-of-care testing, biosensors, and emerging technologies such as AI-assisted platforms. Studies addressing the clinical impact, implementation challenges, and real-world applications of rapid diagnostic tools across different healthcare settings are particularly encouraged.

This Special Issue aims to bring together multidisciplinary contributions from microbiologists, clinicians, pharmacologists, and bioengineers working to combat AMR through faster and more precise diagnostics.

Dr. Maria Grazia Bocci
Guest Editor

Dr. Giulia Capecchi
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antimicrobial resistance
  • antibiotic susceptibility testing
  • rapid diagnostics
  • molecular detection
  • point-of-care testing
  • clinical microbiology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 732 KB  
Article
Evaluating the Practical Impact of Fast Microbiology on the Treatment of Bloodstream Infections: Real-World Evidence from a High-Complexity Infectious Disease Center
by Maria Grazia Bocci, Stefania Cicalini, Giulia Capecchi, Sara Leone, Emanuela Caraffa, Giulia Valeria Stazi, Barbara Massa, Silvia D’Arezzo, Marina Selleri and Carla Fontana
Antibiotics 2026, 15(5), 457; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics15050457 - 30 Apr 2026
Viewed by 186
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly when delays in pathogen identification hinder timely and targeted antimicrobial therapy. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) accelerate microbiological identification, yet their clinical impact remains heterogeneous across different healthcare settings. This study [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly when delays in pathogen identification hinder timely and targeted antimicrobial therapy. Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) accelerate microbiological identification, yet their clinical impact remains heterogeneous across different healthcare settings. This study aimed to evaluate the real-world effect of implementing FAST microbiology, a diagnostic workflow that integrates RDTs into conventional blood culture processing, on diagnostic timeliness, antimicrobial decision-making, and patient management in a hospital specializing in complex infectious diseases. Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental study comparing non-FAST and FAST workflows over a 24-month period, including 166 adult patients with sepsis admitted to ICU and non-ICU units, accounting for 231 BSIs. Microbiological outcomes, treatment dynamics, time to targeted therapy, and key clinical endpoints were compared between non-FAST and FAST groups. Results: FAST microbiology significantly reduced the time to initiation of targeted therapy across clinical settings. No statistically significant differences were observed in hospital length of stay, overall mortality, or 28-day mortality between the two groups. Baseline clinical severity, age, and comorbidity burden remained the main determinants of clinical outcomes. Conclusions: These real-world findings support the integration of rapid diagnostics into existing antimicrobial stewardship frameworks by improving diagnostic timeliness and supporting earlier microbiologically guided therapeutic decisions. However, the results also highlight that accelerating diagnostics alone may not be sufficient to improve survival in critically ill patients with complex infectious diseases, where outcomes are predominantly driven by patient- and disease-related factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing and Rapid Diagnostics of Antimicrobial Resistance)
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