New rapid blood tests can spot deadly sepsis and also flag up signs of ten other serious diseases in minutes
- A 100-pound disposable kit could show in seconds whether patients have sepsis
Seriously ill patients could soon receive a blood test that can show in seconds whether they are suffering from sepsis – an immune system reaction that can kill within hours.
The £100 single-use kit – which works using the same technology as rapid Covid lateral flow tests – could also be used to detect early signs of other diseases, including cancer and heart disease.
Sepsis occurs when bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, or viral infections, including the flu, confuse the immune system, causing it to attack major organs. About 150,000 people are hospitalized with the disease annually and the disease results in about 48,000 deaths, but there is no reliable test for it.
The British scientists behind the kit, known as a multiplex test, which could be given to paramedics and hospital teams, say it could be available in the UK by 2025 and save thousands of lives every year.
“The diagnosis of sepsis currently takes far too long,” says Dr. Mike Hudson, CEO of EDX Medical, the company behind the test. “Our blood test could help get people to hospital quicker and reduce sepsis deaths.”
In March, actor Jason Watkins (pictured) said the death of his two-year-old daughter Maude from sepsis in 2011 was preventable because hospital staff missed warning signs
Sepsis occurs when bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, or viral infections, including the flu, confuse the immune system, causing it to attack major organs
“The diagnosis of sepsis currently takes far too long,” says Dr. Mike Hudson, CEO of EDX Medical, the company behind the test. “Our blood test could help get people to hospital quicker and reduce sepsis deaths.”
There are at least 245,000 cases of sepsis in the UK every year, many of which develop during hospitalization. The first symptoms are often severe shortness of breath, high fever, slurred speech or disorientation. However, these are often overlooked by doctors or confused with less serious illnesses.
In March, actor Jason Watkins said the death of his two-year-old daughter Maude from sepsis in 2011 was preventable because hospital staff missed warning signs.
Experts say they have long known what changes in the blood – so-called biomarkers – are linked to sepsis, but have been unable to develop a rapid test that can reliably diagnose the disease.
“There are biomarkers in the blood that you can look for that indicate something is going wrong in the immune system,” says Dr. Hudson, “but there are about three to five different biomarkers that all have to be present to prove it’s sepsis, otherwise.” it could just be a fever.
“Currently we can carry out a test in a laboratory that can detect these changes, which can take up to a day, but rapid testing technology that can be carried out at the patient’s home, by a GP or an ambulance team is not there yet .” .’
Dr. Hudson believes the test will be the answer to this problem.
A finger blood sample is dripped onto the device and within minutes, dots on a paper screen indicate various biomarkers present in the blood.
“If you were to do the test and three out of five sepsis biomarkers came up, it would be clear that the patient needed urgent specialist care in the hospital,” says Dr. Hudson.
Studies have found that the test can detect most biomarkers associated with sepsis. Other biomarkers could indicate up to ten other diseases, including bladder, pancreatic, cervical and breast cancer, say the creators.
A study on the effectiveness of the test is expected to be published later this year.