Ushering in Diagnostic Stewardship: a Step Towards Antibiotic Stewardship

In recent years, there have been significant developments in rapid diagnostic techniques (RDTs) in microbiology for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. By providing a more rapid diagnosis, RDTs have the potential to affect diagnostic algorithms and therapeutic decisions. In addition to “antibiotic stewardship,” the term “diagnostic stewardship” has recently been coined in clinical practice and denotes the promotion of a rational implementation of diagnostic tests with a view to improving the quality of care and safely reducing cost. This review explores the advancement of diagnostic and antibiotic stewardship in the implementation of RDTs and describes the most relevant related clinical applications in Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs), bloodstream infections (BSIs), and respiratory infections. An innovative evidence-based RDT diagnostic algorithm that varies according to the presence of pre-agreed institutional criteria significantly increases testing accuracy for differentiating CDIs from carriage status. Evidence on BSIs reveals that pairing RDTs and antibiotic stewardship eases timely and appropriate utilization of RDTs results that may improve the clinical outcomes by optimizing antibiotic use. Data on clinical implications of RDTs targeting antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative and respiratory infections are scarce and inconclusive. Intertwining the role of diagnostic and antibiotic stewardship is crucial to optimizing RDTs utilization, by ensuring that RDTs are rationally selected and implemented, and results correctly interpreted and applied to clinical practice. Further research is needed to explore the clinical implications of RDT implementation.