Point of Care testing can improve the detection and treatment of
influenza

Date:
December 14, 2020
Source:
University of Southampton
Summary:
New research has shown that implementing point-of-care testing in
hospitals to diagnose influenza can lead to better treatment and
faster recovery for patients. The researchers are now calling for
routine use of these tests to become standard for patients admitted
with acute respiratory symptoms during the influenza season.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Southampton-led research has shown that implementing point-of-care
testing in hospitals to diagnose influenza can lead to better treatment
and faster recovery for patients. The researchers are now calling for
routine use of these tests to become standard for patients admitted with
acute respiratory symptoms during the influenza season.


==========================================================================
The influenza virus causes seasonal epidemics of acute illnesses every
winter.

Adults who are admitted to hospitals are often taken to critical care
wards and between 3% to 15% die in hospital. Diagnosis of influenza in hospitals takes time due to the turnaround time of the standard PCR
test, which requires samples to be sent to a laboratory, leading to
later antiviral treatment and isolation facility use.

Molecular Point-of-care tests are highly accurate and can provide
results in less than one hour but there has been limited assessment
of their effectiveness in terms of improving recovery for patients in
clinical settings.

In this new study, a team of researchers from University of Southampton
and University Hospital Southampton randomised patients admitted with
acute respiratory symptoms to receive point-of-care testing using the
FilmArray Respiratory Panel 2 or routine clinical care -- where testing
was at the discretion of the clinical teams and used stranded laboratory testing.

Over two concurrent influenza seasons 600 patients were enrolled in total
with just over 300 in each group. Patients in point-of-care group had a
nose and throat swab performed and immediately tested on the FilmArray instrument located in the acute area, with the results communicated to
clinical teams as soon as available.

The findings, published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine,
showed that patients tested routinely with the point-of-care test received their result much more rapidly and were much more likely to be correctly diagnosed with influenza. 100% of the patients who had influenza in this
group were correctly diagnosed compared to just 62% of patients with
influenza who received routine care. Those that remained undiagnosed in
the routine care group did not receive antivirals and were not nursed
in single room accommodation, meaning that they were much more likely
to pass influenza on to other patients.

The results for the patients in the point-of-care group were available
within one hour, meaning those with confirmed influenza received the
necessary antiviral treatment faster than those in the routine care
group whose results took almost a day to come back. In addition, those
in the point-of-care testing group recovered faster and were less likely
to deteriorate, compared to those in the standard care arm.

The trial was led by Dr Tristan Clark, Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton. He said, "Our trial has shown that
Routine molecular POCT for influenza in hospitals leads to improvements
in influenza detection, antiviral use, isolation facility use and recovery compared with the current standard of care.

"We feel that this is practice changing and that guidelines should change
as a result. Obviously the current COVID-19 pandemic makes the current situation more complex but the broad principles of needing to test at
the point-of-care are applicable to both conditions."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Southampton. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Tristan W Clark, Kate R Beard, Nathan J Brendish, Ahalya K
Malachira,
Samuel Mills, Cathleen Chan, Stephen Poole, Sean Ewings, Nick
Cortes, Esther Nyimbili, Laura Presland. Clinical impact of a
routine, molecular, point-of-care, test-and-treat strategy for
influenza in adults admitted to hospital (FluPOC): a multicentre,
open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Respiratory
Medicine, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600 (20)30469-0 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201214123501.htm

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