plaTform fOr Uti diagnostiC evAluatioN - TOUCAN
Research type
Research Study
Full title
plaTform fOr Uti diagnostiC evAluatioN - TOUCAN
IRAS ID
324065
Contact name
Gail Hayward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a painful, common condition with potentially serious consequences if untreated. UTIs are more common in women, affecting almost half of all women at least once. Most patients receive antibiotics for UTI symptoms, but sometimes the symptoms are not caused by bacteria and in these cases antibiotics will not be effective. To ensure appropriate prescribing to reduce treatment failure we need to make sure only those patients who have bacterial infections receive antibiotics. To do this we need a good test for bacterial infection, but current tests for UTIs are either too slow or inaccurate.
Recent years have seen huge interest from companies in developing new UTI tests. These rapid tests, designed to work in the GP surgery, aim to show whether a bacterial infection is present and suggest which antibiotic is most likely to work. They could revolutionise how we treat UTI and save a lot of unnecessary antibiotics being used. However, before we can use them in the NHS, we need to be sure they perform well when used in primary care, by conducting a research study comparing them to standard tests for detecting UTI. Setting up these studies is expensive and time consuming for individual test companies, and so it can take a long time for good evidence to become available.
In this study we aim to solve this problem by showing it is possible to evaluate multiple UTI rapid tests in parallel at GP surgeries. We will collect samples from 600 to 900 women who contact their GP with symptoms of UTI. The study will compare results from up to three of these new tests to the standard tests for UTI.REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0371
Date of REC Opinion
2 May 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion