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JAC Advance Access originally published online on April 29, 2004
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Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2004) 53, 902-905
© 2004 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Leading Article

Towards targeted prescribing: will the cure for antimicrobial resistance be specific, directed therapy through improved diagnostic testing?

Lance R. Peterson1,* and Axel Dalhoff2

1 Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Division of Microbiology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; 2 Pharma Research Centre, Bayer AG, Wuppertal, Germany

The discovery of antimicrobial agents was one of the major events of the twentieth century. However, with the ‘antibiotic era’ barely five decades old, we are now faced with the global problem of emerging resistance in virtually all pathogens. Guidelines and admonishments to improve prescribing have had little effect. At this point, in the twenty-first century, we are on the threshold of another era of discovery—that of molecular diagnostics. We postulate that the development and use of new molecular microbiological testing, coupled with an ever-improving understanding of how best to use these precious drugs in the treatment of infection, offers the greatest hope yet for physician prescribing that can retard, or perhaps even reduce, the development of drug resistance in many microbial species. This diagnostic advance could preserve the utility of antimicrobial agents well into the future for the benefit of all people.

Keywords: molecular diagnostics, infectious disease diagnosis, antibiotic prescribing, empirical therapy

* Correspondence address. Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, 1033 University Place, Suite 100, Evanston, IL 60201, USA. Tel: +1-847-570-1637; Fax: +1-847-733-5314; E-mail: lancer{at}northwestern.edu


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