Traditional diagnostic techniques in infectious diseases are based on culture of isolated microorganisms, which is time consuming, not always conclusive and relatively expensive. While molecular identification techniques are precise, they are still laborious and expensive. Rapid and unequivocal identification of the microbial pathogens is essential for efficient management of human infections.

In contrast to current diagnostic methods in microbiological laboratories, NMR spectroscopy identifies diagnostic metabolites of a broad range simultaneously. In many cases automation of the acquisition and analysis of NMR spectroscopic data from body fluids, tissue samples or suspensions of isolated microorganisms is possible, thereby reducing time and costs for the identification of microorganisms without compromising accuracy. In addition, in vivo NMR spectroscopy is a non-invasive technique for detection of diagnostic chemicals in patients with focal infections.

We review current applications of NMR spectroscopy in microbiology and infectious diseases and purpose-adapted computerized data analysis techniques. These applications include the identification of cultured microorganisms and the use of NMR to study body fluids (pus, CSF) and biopsy samples from patients with infective lesions. Some attention will be paid to animal models as well as pattern recognition based computerised data analysis.