Combined Diagnostic Tool for joint prosthesis infections.

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Diagnosing joint prosthesis infection is complex and often subjective.
• Current diagnostic methods require a multi-modal approach with subjective interpretation.
• Objective tools are needed to improve the accuracy of prosthetic joint infection diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a software tool for calculating the Combined Tests Index (CTI).
• To objectively assess the probability of joint prosthesis infection using a combination of diagnostic tests.
• To compare the CTI with intra-operative findings for prosthetic joint infection.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Combined Diagnostic Tool software to calculate the CTI based on test sensitivity and specificity.
• Conducted a double-blind, prospective evaluation of the CTI in 36 patients.
• Compared pre-operative CTI values with intra-operative cultural and histological findings.

Main Results:

• The CTI accurately differentiated between infected and uninfected prostheses.
• All 21 infected patients had a pre-operative CTI > 1 (mean 711).
• All 15 uninfected patients had a pre-operative CTI < 1 (mean 0.074).
• The difference in CTI between groups was statistically significant (p = 0.04).

Conclusions:

• The Combined Tests Index (CTI) shows potential as a valuable tool for prosthetic joint infection diagnosis.
• Objective calculation of CTI can aid in the differential diagnosis of prosthetic infections.
• This software tool may reduce subjectivity in interpreting combined diagnostic results for prosthetic joint infections.