Health

Identifying pneumonia with a DNA test helps with faster COVID-19 treatment

Details of the causative organism in patients with acquired ICU infections are limited to reports.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the NHS Foundation Trust at the University of Cambridge Hospital have developed a DNA test that rapidly identifies secondary infections in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).The result was published in the journal Critical care..

Patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19 and have a secondary infection are at twice the risk of developing pneumonia during ventilation compared to patients who are not infected with the virus. Ventilators are often the only way to keep a seriously ill person alive, but they are also vulnerable to other infections caused by bacteria and fungi.

Researchers have developed this method using a high-throughput DNA test that can provide doctors with the information they need to start treatment in hours instead of the days required for the current test. The ability to obtain faster results provides better treatment opportunities for infectious diseases.

“Early in the pandemic, we realized that patients with COVID-19 were at particular risk of developing secondary pneumonia and began using the rapid diagnostic tests we developed for that very situation,” co-author Andrew. Conway Morris said. Said in the study. “Using this test, we found that patients with COVID-19 were twice as likely to develop secondary pneumonia as other patients in the same intensive care unit.”

The test employs a multipolymerase chain reaction (PCR) that detects bacterial DNA and takes about 4 hours to complete, shortening the window for bacterial growth. This technology runs multiple PCR reactions in parallel. This allows the simultaneous detection of 52 different pathogens, most importantly those that can infect the lungs.

For the first time, this test was used in routine clinical practice and was approved by the hospital. Researchers believe that a similar approach could benefit if it were applied more widely.

“Patients with COVID-19 are more likely to develop secondary pneumonia, but the bacteria that caused these infections were found to be similar to those in ICU patients without COVID-19,” the study said. The author, Mail is Maes, said. “This means that standard antibiotic protocols can be applied to COVID-19 patients.”

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Identifying pneumonia with a DNA test helps with faster COVID-19 treatment