Real-world performance of a single-use, analyser-free, molecular point-of-care test for COVID-19 used in the emergency department: Results of a prospective trial (ED-POC).

Background: A novel single-use, analyser-free, molecular point-of-care test for SARS-CoV-2 (Veros COVID-19 test, Sherlock Biosciences) could reduce time to results and improve patient care and flow in the emergency department (ED), but its performance in this setting is unknown.

Methods: Adults aged ≥18 years presenting to Southampton General Hospital (UK) with suspected COVID-19 were tested with the Veros COVID-19 test in addition to standard of care near-patient PCR. Measures of diagnostic accuracy were calculated for the Veros COVID-19 test stratified by Ct value.

Clinical Outcomes of Rapid Respiratory Virus Testing in Emergency Departments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Rapid tests for respiratory viruses, including multiplex panels, are increasingly available in emergency departments (EDs). Their association with patient outcomes remains unclear.

Objective: To determine if ED rapid respiratory virus testing in patients with suspected acute respiratory infection (ARI) was associated with decreased antibiotic use, ancillary tests, ED length of stay, and ED return visits and hospitalization and increased influenza antiviral treatment.

Emergency Department point-of-care antiviral host response testing is accurate during periods of multiple respiratory virus co-circulation.

Objectives: FebriDx is a CE-marked, FDA-approved point-of-care test that detects the antiviral host response protein Myxovirus Resistance Protein A (MxA), in addition to C-reactive protein, using finger-prick blood. FebriDx MxA detection had a high negative predictive value for COVID-19 in symptomatic adults presenting to hospital in the first waves of the pandemic and was used subsequently as a 'rule out' triage tool in Emergency departments. The diagnostic accuracy of FebriDx MxA in the current context of co-circulation of influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and in the era of COVID-19 vaccination, is unknown.

Clinical impact of syndromic molecular point-of-care testing for gastrointestinal pathogens in adults hospitalised with suspected gastroenteritis (GastroPOC): a pragmatic, open-label, randomised controlled trial.

Background: Single-occupancy isolation rooms are a finite resource in UK hospitals but are crucial in preventing transmission of infection. Patients with suspected gastroenteritis are nursed in single-occupancy rooms, but delays in laboratory testing lead to non-infectious patients remaining isolated for prolonged periods unnecessarily. Rapid molecular test panels for gastrointestinal pathogens have a run time of around 1 h but their clinical impact is unknown.