Background

Septic arthritis diagnostic is an emergency which implies a treatment with antibiotics and hospitalization. The diagnosis is based on the cytobacteriological examination of the synovial fluid (SF), but direct bacteriological examination is insensitive, and the result of the culture is obtained only after several days. Therefore, there is still a need for a rapid, simple and reliable method for the positive diagnosis of septic arthritis. Such method must allow avoiding both unrecognized septic arthritis leading to major functional consequences, and overdiagnosis that will induce unnecessary expensive hospitalization and unjustified treatment. Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, that gives a metabolic profiling of biological fluids, has been proposed for early and fast diagnosis.