Fig. 4.

Current and potential future workup processes for identification of pathogens responsible for VAP. To date, it takes 48–72 h. to identify pathogen responsible for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and its susceptibility to antibiotics (purple boxes), delaying the definitive, targeted treatment at that time (green boxes). Awaiting these results, physicians prescribe empiric broad-spectrum antimicrobial treatment. The use of specific, targeted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may allow shortening this time to 24–36 h., but for specific pathogens and specific resistance mechanisms. A potential future workup process will be to use multiplex PCR (blue box) to identify within less than 6 h pathogens responsible for VAP and their resistance to antimicrobials