INTRODUCTION
hematochezia
BLOODY DIARRHEA, HEMATOCHEZIA
Acute bloody diarrhea is a medical emergency for patients of all ages, and infectious etiologies should be considered and prioritized in the evaluation of such patients (The BioFire FilmArray gastrointestinal panel (bioMérieux Canada Inc., Quebec, Canada) is a multiplexed nucleic acid (NA) amplification assay that simultaneously identifies 22 enteric pathogens, including targets for One of the historical barriers to diagnosing enteric pathogens is the difficulty inherent in obtaining and transporting bulk stool specimen to the diagnostic laboratory for analysis, particularly for outpatients (To evaluate the impact of the BioFire FilmArray gastrointestinal panel, we conducted a randomized clinical trial to determine if usage in children with hematochezia resulted in a reduction in resource utilization. Secondary objectives included (i) to quantify clinical outcomes among STEC-infected children, (ii) to determine if use of the BioFire FilmArray gastrointestinal panel was associated with greater family satisfaction with care, and (iii) to identify testing criteria to optimize the diagnostic yield of the BioFire FilmArray (i.e., ability to identify bacterial etiologies).