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Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses versus routine clinical care in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to secondary care: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial protocol (ResPOC)

Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses versus routine clinical care in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to secondary care: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial protocol (ResPOC)
Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses versus routine clinical care in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to secondary care: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial protocol (ResPOC)
Background: Respiratory viruses are associated with a huge socio-economic burden and are responsible for a large proportion of acute respiratory illness in hospitalised adults. Laboratory PCR is accurate but takes at least 24 hours to generate a result to clinicians and antigen-based point-of-care tests (POCT) lack sensitivity. Rapid molecular platforms, such as the FilmArray Respiratory Panel, have equivalent diagnostic accuracy to laboratory PCR and can generate a result in 1 hour making them deployable as POCT. Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in hospital has the potential to improve the detection rate of respiratory viruses, improve the use of influenza antivirals and reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, but high quality randomised trials with clinically relevant endpoints are needed.

Methods: The ResPOC study is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to a large teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. Eligible participants are adults presenting with acute respiratory illness to the emergency department or the acute medicine unit. Participants are allocated 1:1 by internet-based randomisation service to either the intervention of a nose and throat swab analysed immediately on the FilmArray Respiratory Panel as a POCT or receive routine clinical care. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients treated with antibiotics. Secondary outcomes include turnaround time, virus detection, neuraminidase inhibitor use, length of hospital stay and side room use. Analysis of the primary outcome will be by intention-to-treat and all enrolled participants will be included in safety analysis.

Discussion: Multiple novel molecular POCT platforms for infections including respiratory viruses have been developed and licensed in the last few years and many more are in development but the evidence base for clinical benefit above standard practice is minimal. This randomised controlled trial aims to close this evidence gap by generating high quality evidence for the clinical impact of molecular POCT for respiratory viruses in secondary care and to act as an exemplar for future studies of molecular POCT for infections. This study has the potential to change practice and improve patient care for patients presenting to hospital with acute respiratory illness.

Trial Registration: This study was registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN90211642, on 14th January 2015.
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Brendish, Nathan
22644307-02ec-4e2c-bd52-71c3b957d80f
Malachira, Ahalya
dd1d5b84-f338-44a5-9429-3e3e93a1c953
Clark, Tristan
712ec18e-613c-45df-a013-c8a22834e14f
Brendish, Nathan
22644307-02ec-4e2c-bd52-71c3b957d80f
Malachira, Ahalya
dd1d5b84-f338-44a5-9429-3e3e93a1c953
Clark, Tristan
712ec18e-613c-45df-a013-c8a22834e14f

Brendish, Nathan, Malachira, Ahalya and Clark, Tristan (2016) Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses versus routine clinical care in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to secondary care: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial protocol (ResPOC) Southampton, GB. University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust 29pp.

Record type: Monograph (Project Report)

Abstract

Background: Respiratory viruses are associated with a huge socio-economic burden and are responsible for a large proportion of acute respiratory illness in hospitalised adults. Laboratory PCR is accurate but takes at least 24 hours to generate a result to clinicians and antigen-based point-of-care tests (POCT) lack sensitivity. Rapid molecular platforms, such as the FilmArray Respiratory Panel, have equivalent diagnostic accuracy to laboratory PCR and can generate a result in 1 hour making them deployable as POCT. Molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in hospital has the potential to improve the detection rate of respiratory viruses, improve the use of influenza antivirals and reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, but high quality randomised trials with clinically relevant endpoints are needed.

Methods: The ResPOC study is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in adults with acute respiratory illness presenting to a large teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. Eligible participants are adults presenting with acute respiratory illness to the emergency department or the acute medicine unit. Participants are allocated 1:1 by internet-based randomisation service to either the intervention of a nose and throat swab analysed immediately on the FilmArray Respiratory Panel as a POCT or receive routine clinical care. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients treated with antibiotics. Secondary outcomes include turnaround time, virus detection, neuraminidase inhibitor use, length of hospital stay and side room use. Analysis of the primary outcome will be by intention-to-treat and all enrolled participants will be included in safety analysis.

Discussion: Multiple novel molecular POCT platforms for infections including respiratory viruses have been developed and licensed in the last few years and many more are in development but the evidence base for clinical benefit above standard practice is minimal. This randomised controlled trial aims to close this evidence gap by generating high quality evidence for the clinical impact of molecular POCT for respiratory viruses in secondary care and to act as an exemplar for future studies of molecular POCT for infections. This study has the potential to change practice and improve patient care for patients presenting to hospital with acute respiratory illness.

Trial Registration: This study was registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN90211642, on 14th January 2015.

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Published date: 7 November 2016
Organisations: Clinical & Experimental Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 402407
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/402407
PURE UUID: 14db0b75-f4b9-48d7-9b14-71d90b101747
ORCID for Tristan Clark: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6026-5295

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 07 Nov 2016 11:14
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:49

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Contributors

Author: Nathan Brendish
Author: Ahalya Malachira
Author: Tristan Clark ORCID iD

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