Microcalorimetry and sonication to diagnose prosthetic joint infection (PJI)

Sonication is sensitive but the fluid resulted from sonication process is still to be plated. In the group of Dr. Trampuz (formerly Lausanne and now Berlin) and Dr. Borens, I did a research to detect the presence of bacteria in sonication fluid by using microcalorimeter. Microcalorimeter is an instrument that detect heat very, very, very sensitively. This techniques is imported from the military world, where microcalorimetry is used to detect the stability of a bomb (you read it right, a bomb!). As you know, when bacteria are dividing they produced microheat which we can detect. The combination of microcalorimetry and sonication is proven to be accurate and fast.

The abstract of this paper can be seen here.