Table 3. Selected examples of future technologies for pathogen identification (ID) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST).

Technologies	Summary of method	Time of AST	Direct on patient sample	Real MIC	POP or CA	Automatic or manual	References
E-nose	Detection of VOCs as an electronic aroma signature to identify bacteria and recently to discriminate MRSA from MSSA	NA	Yes (urine, breath, positive blood culture)	No	CA	A	[114,119,121–124]
Flow cytometry	Follow the viability of microorganisms, after exposure to antibiotics using dyes that do not permeate the cell walls of healthy bacteria	2–3 h	No	Yes	POP	A	[140,141]
IMC (isothermal microcalorimetry)	Measure the heat as signature of growing cells	3–14 h	Yes (urine)	Yes	POP	A	[142,143]
Magnetic bead spin	Changes in spin of magnetic beads in a magnetic field as a function of the number of bacteria bound	<5 h	No	Yes	POP	A	[144]
NMR spectroscopy	Analysis of the bacteria metabolome, using it to identify different bacteria and its antimicrobial susceptibility phenotype.	<6 h	No	Yes	POP	A	[137,138]
fASTest	Direct single-cell imaging using microfluidic chip	<30 min	Yes (urine)	Yes	POP	A	[125]
Impedance measurement	Measure the electrical response from target bacteria in the presence and absence of antibiotics	<90 min	Yes (blood) (urine)	No	POP	A	[145]
Infrared spectroscopy	Discriminate the strains on the basis of their infrared spectra	ND	No	No	POP	A	[149]
Surface-enhanced raman scattering (SERS)	Measure the intensity of specific bacteria biomarkers using Raman scattering (SERS) spectra	2 h	No	Yes	POP	A	[139]

CA, clinically approved; MIC, minimum inhibitory concentration; POP, proof of principle.