Rapid Diagnosis of Respiratory Tract Infections Using a Point-of-Care Platform Incorporating a Clinical Decision...

Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs) are among the top reasons for visiting a General Practitioner (GP) and the main cause of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. Reducing inappropriate use is essential to decrease antibiotic resistance and adverse events. The goal of the Eurostars project "Respiotic" is to develop a new point-of-care (POC) platform based on the centrifugal microfluidic LabDisk that will detect the main responsible viruses and bacteria for community-acquired RTIs, including associated resistances and host biomarkers. The diagnostic platform will use a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and an immunoassay cartridge on the same instrument and provide the combined analysis within less than 1 h. An electronic clinical algorithm will co-assess the test results and act as a decision support tool for the GPs' patient management and prescriptions.