7:00am Monday 22nd March 2010
MAJOR research work carried out in the laboratories at Hereford County Hospital could lead to a new international gold standard for detecting a dangerous stomach bug.
Clostridium difficile affects the gut, producing toxins causing diarrhoea in patients following the use of antibiotics and it has been linked to many deaths across the country.
Tackling the bug is a national priority for all NHS hospitals with early and accurate diagnosis considered the key in preventing and managing the condition.
The microbiology laboratory at Hereford County Hospital is one of only a few in the UK using specialist techniques to detect the codes for the toxins as well as comparing the different methods of early detection of C.difficile.
The research team used stools from 261 patients between January and August 2009.
Their conclusions will be presented at a European Infectious Disease Conference in Vienna next month by Graham Smith, one of the biomedical scientists who performed the experiments.
The paper had an airing at a major conference in London last month when Dr Venkat Sivaprakasam, consultant microbiologist at the hospital, gave the results of the Hereford study on determining the optimum testing procedure for swift diagnosis of C.difficile.
Early diagnosis is said to be vital and it is claimed the work in Hereford could lead to results being available in less than an hour compared with other tests taking up to two weeks.
Further research is continuing at the hospital with Dr Sivaprakasam conducting a larger study with the hospital’s new detection system to look at the clinical and financial benefits of using it.
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