Antibiotics are prescribed for over 50% of respiratory tract infections in primary care, despite good evidence of there being no benefit to the patient, and evidence of over prescribing driving microb...
This is a multi-centre, individually randomised controlled trial with mixed-methods investigation of microbial, behavioural and antibiotic mechanisms on outcomes in patients aged 12 months and over pr...
This trial will provide evidence of efficacy, acceptability and mechanisms of action of a rapid microbiological point-of-care test on antibiotic prescribing and patient symptoms in primary care....
ISRCTN16039192, prospectively registered on 08/11/2022....
Liver disease causes serious public health problems because of its high prevalence, particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries. Alanine transaminase (ALT) is considered to be one of the m...
Here, we introduce a power-free foldable poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microdevice fully integrating DNA extraction, amplification, and visual detection, realized in novel dual modes - colorimetric...
Advanced HIV disease (AHD; CD4 counts <200 cells/µL) remains common in many low- and middle-income settings. An instrument-free point-of-care test to rapidly identify patients with AHD would facilitat...
A laboratory validation study....
Venous blood samples from people living with HIV having baseline CD4 testing in Gaborone, Botswana, underwent routine testing using flow cytometry, followed by testing with the VISITECT CD4 Advanced D...
One thousand fifty-three samples were included in the analysis. The VISITECT test correctly identified 112/119 samples as having a CD4 count <200 cells/µL, giving a sensitivity of 94.1% (95% confidenc...
The VISITECT CD4 advanced disease reliably identified individuals with low CD4 counts and could facilitate implementation of the WHO recommended package of interventions for AHD....
Cervical cancer (CC) is a major health care problem in low- and middle-income countries, necessitating the development of low-cost and easy-to-use assays for CC detection at point-of-care (POC) settin...
Point-of-Care Tests (POCTs) are utilized daily in resource abundant regions, however, are limited in the global south, particularly in the prehospital setting. Few studies exist on the use of non-mala...
A medical subject heading (MeSH) analysis of known key articles was done by an experienced medical librarian and scoping searches were performed in each database to capture "point of care testing" and...
2735 publications were returned, 185 were nominated for full-text review, and 110 studies were confirmed to meet study criteria. Majority focused on malaria (74/110; 67%) or HIV (25/110; 23%); 9/110 (...
The use of new POCTs is on the rise and may improve early risk stratification in limited resource settings. Current evidence from decades of malaria POCTs can guide future implementation strategies....
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs that are approximately 22 nt in length and regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. miRNAs play a vital role in both physiological and pa...
As surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been used to diagnose several respiratory viruses (e.g., influenza A virus subtypes such as H1N1 and the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2), SERS is gaining po...
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are by far the most common reason for prescribing an antibiotic in primary care, even though the majority of ARIs are of viral or non-severe bacterial aetiology. It...
To assess the benefits and harms of point-of-care biomarker tests of inflammation to guide antibiotic treatment in people presenting with symptoms of acute respiratory infections in primary care setti...
We searched CENTRAL (2022, Issue 6), MEDLINE (1946 to 14 June 2022), Embase (1974 to 14 June 2022), CINAHL (1981 to 14 June 2022), Web of Science (1955 to 14 June 2022), and LILACS (1982 to 14 June 20...
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in primary care patients with ARIs that compared the use of point-of-care biomarkers with standard care. We included trials that randomised individual p...
Two review authors independently extracted data on the following primary outcomes: number of participants given an antibiotic prescription at index consultation and within 28 days follow-up; participa...
We included seven new trials in this update, for a total of 13 included trials. Twelve trials (10,218 participants in total, 2335 of which were children) evaluated a C-reactive protein point-of-care t...
The use of C-reactive protein point-of-care tests as an adjunct to standard care likely reduces the number of participants given an antibiotic prescription in primary care patients who present with sy...
Preeclampsia (PE) poses a serious threat to the health of the pregnant woman and her developing fetus due to the difficulty in diagnosing the condition. The disease can develop and worsen suddenly wit...
The kit employs an absorptive column that separates Congo red dye bound to urinary misfolded protein from pregnant women and unbound dye. When a solution of Congo red dye pre-mixed with urine is loade...
The POCT has a limit of detection (LoD) of human urinary misfolded proteins equivalent to 0.45 μM of denatured human serum albumin, with high reproducibility and stability. An accuracy of 96.84% for d...
This test is easy to use, cost-effective and portable with short turnaround time and no laboratory instrument requirement. In the future, the test may have the potential to become quantitative using s...
