Table 5:

Comparison of the use of antimicrobial therapy with or without rt-PCR.

Empiric therapy	Clinician judgment	Based on rt-PCR
No use of empiric antimicrobial therapy, n	21	18
In cases of no BSI, n/N (%)	18/21 (86)	18/18 (100)
In cases of BSI, n/N (%)	3/21 (14)	0/18 (0)
Empiric antimicrobial therapy, n	19	22
In cases of no BSI, n/N (%)	8/19 (42)	8/22 (36)
In cases of BSI, n/N (%)	11/19 (58)	14/22 (64)
Empiric coverage for Gram-negative organism, n	18	15
In cases of no Gram-negative BSI, n/N (%)	12/18 (67)	8/15 (53)
In cases of Gram-negative BSI, n/N (%)	6/18 (33)	7/15 (47)
Empiric coverage for Gram-positive BSI, n	13	7
In cases of no Gram-positive BSI, n/N (%)	10/13 (77)	2/7 (29)
In cases of Gram-positive BSI, n/N (%)	3/13 (23)	5/7 (71)