What is syndromic testing?

Introducing state-of-the-art testing for patients

- DR. EDSEL MAURICE T. SALVANA

When I was a medical student at the Philippine General Hospital, we had to think long and hard about what tests we ordered for patients. Aside from the expense, there was limited information you could get with each test, and you had to explain your rationale for doing the test, or you would get into trouble with your senior.

Testing for infectious diseases was basically taking cultures of body fluids such as blood, phlegm, and urine and waiting for three to five days. In the meantime, you made your best guess as to what could be causing the patient's infection and started antibiotics that were most likely to be active against those bacteria.

This approach usually results in the overuse of antibiotics. For critically ill patients, we used very strong antibiotics that covered almost every pathogenic bacterium possible because missing the correct bug could be fatal to the patient. In some cases, we added antifungals and antivirals. This approach, termed empiric therapy, is done mostly because we cannot get our tests back fast enough to guide the decision to treat.