NICE can’t recommend new sepsis tests

[AussieNeil]

"The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said there is not enough evidence to recommend 3 new blood tests for routine use in the National Health Service.

:

The tests in question are ... used to analyze whole blood samples for bacterial and fungal DNA, which may identify pathogens earlier than microbiology techniques. Microbiology techniques require blood samples to be incubated and cultured before pathogens can be identified."

Full article available from Hematology Times (free membership):

hematologytimes.com/p_artic...

So this means that we are still reliant on the time consuming process of identifying the likely cause of sepsis - a potentially life threatening whole-body inflammatory response to an infection. That's a good reason to be aware of your risk of sepsis, i.e whether you have neutropenia or low immunogammaglobulins (hypogammaglobulinemia), ensuring you minimise your risk of infection by doing what you can to prevent cuts and scrapes, taking particular care of wounds, asking for prophylactic treatment with surgery (including dental procedures and even teeth cleaning by a oral hygienist) and even avoiding flossing your teeth if your ANC is below 0.5.

Neil

[teb0513]

Thanks for posting this, Neil. I just got over a bout of sepsis - a new adventure that I want to avoid from happening ever again. I was caught off guard and ended up in the hospital for 3 days.

teb0513