Effect of exclusion of bacteremia on antibiotic treatment

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Observational study in critical care to assess if use of a diagnostic test to exclude bactermia would affect clinical decision making

  • IRAS ID

    198903

  • Contact name

    Tabitha Kavoi

  • Contact email

    randd@uclh.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University College London Hospitals

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 9 months, 8 days

  • Research summary

    This is an observational study to compare the performance of Enzymatic Template Generation & Amplification (ETGA) to conventional clinical and microbiological evaluation in determining length of antibiotic treatment in patients in the critical care unit. The test shows with a high degree of certainty the absence of bacteria and fungi in a blood sample. The study will focus on critically ill patients admitted with suspected sepsis, severe pneumonia, and other infections who require critical care assessment and evaluation. With the increasing risk of highly resistant organisms, unecessary use of antibiotics must be kept to a minimum. Although antibiotic treatment will be stopped when clearly not needed there is often a period of uncertainty. None of the indicators used each day are specific to the presence of infection. Hence antibiotics may be given several days longer than needed. The test in this study may aid earlier stopping of antibiotic treatment.

  • REC name

    Wales REC 4

  • REC reference

    16/WA/0264

  • Date of REC Opinion

    21 Sep 2016

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion