Filtered light analysis and ATP testing for infection monitoring
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A comparative study of filtered light analysis and ATP testing for infection monitoring in an NHS hospital
IRAS ID
318094
Contact name
Sarah Fieldhouse
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Nosocomial infection poses a considerable risk to patient safety and public health. Not only does it increase morbidity and mortality rates, but it has a significant financial impact on hospital resources, aligned to increased periods of admission, treatment, staff time in patient care and absence due to illness. Improvements to the detection and monitoring of infection could have significant benefits to this demographic and the wider population.
Materials and substances, including body fluids, which can contain bacteria and viruses can appear differently when exposed to different wavelengths of light. For example, some body fluids readily fluoresce. It is a property that is routinely exploited in forensic science to detect body fluids for DNA analysis as well as other types of forensic evidence. This type of analysis typically utilises light sources to emit light at specific wavelengths, which vary considerably in terms of the intensity of the emitted light, cost and health and safety requirements.
The aim is to compare Filtered Light Analysis (FLA) with ATP testing for the detection of potential sources of infection in an NHS hospital, utilising technological advancements in light source technology to offer increased sensitivity and specificity to the target environment and visualisation in ambient lighting. The project will ascertain the proportion of the site(s) that are suitable for FLA against ATP test sites and to examine the relationship between the ATP Relative Light Unit data and the equivalent FLA response (e.g., fluorescence) using a logistic regression.
Light sources could help to screen areas of a room or item in real time, and therefore be used to identify additional areas of interest for ATP testing. Alternatively, the ATP test data could infer the presence of material that was not detected with filtered light analysis, which is equally important in any consideration of its use.REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A