MONDAY 6 DECEMBER 2021
D I AGN OSTI C TESTI NG
#ESWI VIRAL TIMES
CO N F E R E N C E N E W S PA P E R
Why is it important to understand diagnostic performance? THE SESSION “DIAGNOSTIC TESTING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CARE”, WAS CHAIRED BY PROFESSOR MICHAEL ISON AND NICOLE TSANG. HERE, RESEARCHERS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES PRESENTED THEIR LATEST FINDINGS ON THE DIAGNOSTIC TESTING FOR SARS-COV-2. Since 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has spread globally with a number of confirmed cases growing to more than 263 million (as of December 3, 2021). Such increasing case number of COVID-19 further increases the heavy workload of healthcare workers directly incapacitating them from managing the pandemic in a timely and appropriate manner. Accurate and scalable testing capacity in different stages is very important to relieve clinical management, as the timely recognition of COVID-19 is critical for preventing nosocomial transmission. The risk of hospital-acquired COVID-19 (HA-COVID-19) infection is increased by cohorting infected and non-infected patients together in assessment areas whilst awaiting laboratory PCR results. Molecular point-of-care (mPOCT) testing for SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to reduce time to results and improve patient flow but the impact on HA-COVID-19 is unknown. Robert Livingstone from University Hospital Southampton, United Kingdom presented the impact of routine molecular point-of-care testing on hospital-acquired COVID-19 infection. During his intervention, he showed that routine mPOCT for SARSCoV-2 was associated with a reduced time
WATCH THE SESSION B Y N I CO L E N G AI YU NG T SA NG
to results, time spent in admission cohort areas, and proportion of HA-COVID-19. “Routine use of mPOCT should become the standard of care in hospital admission pathways”. Prognostic biomarkers could be used early in infection to identify the patient’s risk of severe disease. Kirsty Short from the University of Queensland, Australia examined the IFI27 transcription as a prognostic biomarker for COVID-19 and showed IFI27 expression is associated with the high viral load in the lung. While not as a prognostic marker in nasopharyngeal samples, the IFI27 expression in the blood is associated with COVID-19 severity. IFI27 expression in the blood likely predicts disease outcome in individual patients. This research suggested that diagnostic tools targeting IFI27 expression are likely to be of prognostic use in future viral pandemics. As data suggests, it can also be used for other respiratory virus infections. “IFI27 transcription in blood sample may potentially be developed into a prognostic biomarker”, to facilitate both patient triage and resource prioritisation. Monitoring virus shedding can inform isolation and discharge decisions of 1
confirmed cases, so to allocate the health resources to patients with higher needs and complications. Instead of the invasive nasopharyngeal swabs, gargling has been recently examined but the performance remains unclear. Nicole Ngai Yung Tsang from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR presented the performance of using gargle for monitoring viral shedding in confirmed COVID-19 patients. Analysis revealed gargling is a good approach to monitor viral shedding. On occasions where swab materials, personal protective equipment and manpower are in short supply, “gargling offered scalable capacity for frequent and easily arrangeable SARS-CoV-2 testing” and to inform patients discharge from hospitals and isolation facilities in resource-limited and remote settings in a more efficient manner.
ESWI Viral Times is brought to you by a team of young scientists. More on page 3.