. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Aug 1.

Published in final edited form as: Pediatr Emerg Care. 2020 Aug;36(8):397–401. doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002180

Table 3.

Potential Benefits and Limitations of the BioFire® FilmArray® ME Panel

Potential Benefits	Potential Limitations
Faster turnaround time, diagnosis and definitive treatment/treatment discontinuation^30,31,34 Pathogen identification in culture-negative CSF samples from patients with suspected bacterial meningitis^{31,40,44–46} Detection of organisms in CSF obtained after antimicrobial pretreatment^{31,40,42,43,47} Enables simultaneous identification of co-infections on the same sample^7,56 Ability to test for multiple organisms simultaneously²² Facilitates proper administration of chemoprophylaxis for close contacts⁴⁷ Relatively small amount of CSF sample (minimum 0.2 mL) required²² Limited hands-on time and technical expertise necessary^12,28	Concern for false positive and false negative tests^{12,15,25,50–52,60} Not all pathogens able to cause CNS infections are detected by the panel^{22,25,30,31,38,39,41,60} Unable to provide antimicrobial susceptibilities^22,25 Not intended for CSF samples obtained from indwelling CNS medical devices²² Positive results do not exclude the possibility of a co-infection with an organism not in the panel²² Relatively high cost of purchase ($35,550–$50,000), service ($4,000/year) and per test ($~200)^11,28,48 Lower ability to detect viruses when compared to some singleplex assays^15,35,55,56 Positive results for herpesviruses may be due to latency or reactivation of the virus with or without disease^15,25

Potential Benefits

Potential Limitations

Faster turnaround time, diagnosis and definitive treatment/treatment discontinuation^30,31,34
Pathogen identification in culture-negative CSF samples from patients with suspected bacterial meningitis^{31,40,44–46}
Detection of organisms in CSF obtained after antimicrobial pretreatment^{31,40,42,43,47}
Enables simultaneous identification of co-infections on the same sample^7,56
Ability to test for multiple organisms simultaneously²²
Facilitates proper administration of chemoprophylaxis for close contacts⁴⁷
Relatively small amount of CSF sample (minimum 0.2 mL) required²²
Limited hands-on time and technical expertise necessary^12,28

Concern for false positive and false negative tests^{12,15,25,50–52,60}
Not all pathogens able to cause CNS infections are detected by the panel^{22,25,30,31,38,39,41,60}
Unable to provide antimicrobial susceptibilities^22,25
Not intended for CSF samples obtained from indwelling CNS medical devices²²
Positive results do not exclude the possibility of a co-infection with an organism not in the panel²²
Relatively high cost of purchase ($35,550–$50,000), service ($4,000/year) and per test ($~200)^11,28,48
Lower ability to detect viruses when compared to some singleplex assays^15,35,55,56
Positive results for herpesviruses may be due to latency or reactivation of the virus with or without disease^15,25