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Unclogging the Pediatric Emergency Room: Impact of Rapid Viral Diagnostics

NCT00278759 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 275

Last updated 2009-02-19

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Acute respiratory tract infections are among the most common problems of childhood, particularly among infants and children younger than 3 years, and account for most antibiotic prescriptions to children. Most of these infections are self-limited and do not require medical intervention; however, the symptoms overlap significantly with those of severe viral or bacterial infections. At the hospital Emergency Department (ED), medical assessment, prescription of antibiotics (unnecessarily if the infection is viral), and a series of investigations (e.g., blood work, X-rays) often take place before a decision on patient management and possible hospital admission can be made. Such procedures lead to intense use of human health resources (nursing, laboratory and radiology staff) and hospital facilities.

The literature suggests that a prompt single viral diagnosis improves decision-making. To our knowledge, no-one has performed a controlled trial to examine the impact of a rapid, multi-viral detection test like VIRAP, or the impact of the timing of such a test, on management of children with flu-like illnesses in the ED.

Our objective is to determine if use of our new viral detection program, VIRAP, for rapid testing for viral respiratory infections right after triage will improve patient management and resource use in the ED. We will test the hypothesis that availability of VIRAP at triage to support rapid diagnosis of viral infection in children at BCCH will (i) reduce the waiting time in the ED; (ii) improve decision making regarding diagnostic investigations and specimen collection; and (iii) decrease antibiotic prescriptions.

Study completed and manuscript accepted for publication in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Conditions

  • Respiratory Infection

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Nasopharyngeal washing for viral antigen detection by immunofluorescence initiated early in ED visit.

See Detailed Description.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research

    collaborator OTHER

  • University of British Columbia

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Eva Thomas, MD · The University of British Columbia

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
3 Months
Max Age
36 Months
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2005-12-31
Primary Completion
2007-12-31
Completion
2007-12-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00278759 on ClinicalTrials.gov