The incidences of diarrhoea are growing every day. Today the diarrhoea has become a major concern worldwide and especially in India. The biggest challenge of today is to diagnose diarrhoea if they are ‘infectious or not’ at earliest stage by simple and easy technique.
When a patient visits a hospital with complains of diarrhoea, then, in order to provide a secure and efficient treatment management, the medical team should answer the following questions.
- Is it a transmittable disease?
- Should the patient be isolated?
- Is treatment with antibiotic indicated?
- Are there any other serious diseases presenting diarrhoea as a primary symptom?
- Which diagnostic tests and procedures should be followed in this situation?
Yes, Dexact-f gives the answer.
Dexact-f can answer the above questions with a simple equipment-free stool examination immediately. Our previous studies on 1200 stool samples collected from patients in Sweden have shown that;
- A positive Dexact-f indicates acute inflammation/ infection in the bowel with sensitivity >90 per cent; the patient should be isolated. Feaces pH is always > 6-7 in positive tests.
- In positive Dexact-f results where feaces pH is 6-9, there is low risk for translocation of bacteria and septicaemia. No antibiotic treatment is indicated in clinically stable patients.
- In highly positive cases and high feaces pH> 9-10 broad spectrum antibiotics is indicated due to risk for perforation and septicaemia.
- If the test is negative in spite of loose feaces other causes such as chronic inflammatory bowel disease, other infectious foci in lungs, kidneys, abdomen or colon cancer should be ruled out (specificity > 90 per cent).
Now it is possible to detect if diarrhoea is transmissible or not within one minute with the help of Dexact-f.
PEAS Research Institue Sweden is a research oriented organisation and involved in doing extensive research in lifescience. PEAS Research Institute is the first company in the world who introduced most scientific solution and easy to use technology – rapid faecal strip test to distinguish transmittable diarrhoea by pioneering, developing and producing of Dexact-f device.
Dexact-f: The problem solver
Acute gastroenteritis is a very common disease. Large numbers of patients seeking to the hospitals/doctors are mainly troubled by symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and pain in the stomach.
Diarrhoea, the most dominating symptom is caused by various infectious agents or by other reasons. In spite of the routine tests it is nearly impossible to distinguish between different causes of diarrhoea at admittance or within one minute. Therefore the patients are either isolated at The Department of Infectious Diseases until the culture results are available or they have to be at risk to others health.
With the help of Dexact-f strip, one can distinguish infectious (bacterial, viral, parasite) gastroenteritis from non-infectious (IBD, functional) at admittance within one minute.
Dexact-f is important because…..
There are no other tests yet available in the world that can distinguish between infectious and non-infectious diarrhea (gastroenteritis) at admittance or almost immediately. This is a new concept in the world of lifescience. It is very useful and….
- Decreases isolation costs
- Decreased stool examination costs in non-relevant cases.
- Decreased antibiotic consumption and risk for multi-resistant bacteria (ESBL)
- Rapid diagnosis of septicaemia in need of immediate antibiotic treatment
- Using appropriate diagnostic procedures (colposcopy) on time in serious diseases such as IBD and colon cancer.
- The test by Dexact-f strip is not sensitive to previous antibiotic treatment or low bio-burden.
- The information obtained using the test might be complemented with other tests.
In principle Dexact-f strip should be the first test to choose with meeting a patient with diarrhoea.
Benefits for the patients from Dexact-f
A significant amount of patients seeking medical treatment are consisted of patients suffering from bowel disturbances. Several diseases show diarrhoea as the primary symptom, such as pneumonia, septicaemia, acute bowel obstruction, abscess or perforation, cholecyctitis, transmittable gastroenteritis, antibiotic caused diarrhoea, inflammatory bowel disease, urinary tract infection in children and elderly, toxins and over consumption of laxantia.
Because of risks for transmission such patients are required to be isolated in at least for three days before culture results are available. Approximately 10-15 per cent of such patient’s population needs isolation and the rest of patients might suffer from therapy delays. This period is much longer and expensive in hospitals and many times it is impossible to isolate mass population. In concept the patients might receive a proper treatment after couple of days only. In this situation damage could be done by a patient who suffers from infectious gastroenteritis to many other people by infecting them. The test by Dexact-f can distinguish infectious gastroenteritis at admittance and within a minute.
Brief description of the product: Dexact-f
Hepatocyte growth factor is an acute phase cytokine which is produced at the site of injury and shows high affinity to sulphated glycans such as heparan sulphate proteoglycan and dextran sulphate; this binding affinity is lost during chronic inflammation. Faeces pH strongly impacts the prognosis of outcome for severe diseases. Based on these premises, a strip test was developed to determine binding affinity of HGF to dextran sulphate in faecal samples. An included pH-meter in the strip assessed the severity of illness.
Based on the previous studies it has been seen that the production of a growth factor is increased during acute inflammation locally in bowel. This growth factor (HGF) has high affinity to the receptor (HSPG). We have developed a rapid semi-quantitative test strip with double surfaces. The first surface evaluates binding of HGF to the receptor HSPG and the second surface is simply a pH indicator for faeces. Combination of these two tests at the same time gives information about
- Presence or absence of HGF in faeces
- Faeces pH
Unique advantages of Dexact-f
- By seeking the hospital with diarrhoea a panel of different blood and faecal tests are taken.
- Blood tests are intended to check if the patient is dehydrated, liver and kidney functions and WBC that are not specific and gives general information about the diseases. Serum C-reactive protein and procalcitonin are used to identify bacterial or viral nature of infection. The faecal tests available are taken at the same time. In cases of faeces cultures the results not available at admittance.
- Viral diagnosis by PCR for Calicivirus, Rota virus and Adenovirus: are expensive and performed in few centres. The results not available at admittance.
- Toxin test for Chlostridium deficile: the results available within 24-36 hrs. at centers (not holidays). It diagnoses presence of antibiotic diarrhoea.
- Direct microscopy: Expensive. Needs trained technician. Diagnoses parasites and cysts. Results not available at admittance.
- Calprotectin: New test. Both semi-quantitive and quantitive. Possible at the equipped centers only. Concentration is increased during both infection and IBD. Negative result is valuable to rule out IBD.
- Faecal haemoglobin: Shows presence of blood in faeces and it is unspecific.
- It is important to know that in spite of routine examinations not more than 50-55 per centof all infectious gastroenteritis (diarrhea ) might be verified by available methods being applied currently.
The key point
The Index test by Dexact-f recognises infectious gastroenteritis at admittance before culture, toxin, PCR, or microscopy results are available and at much lower cost. No other test can function in this way in whole world today.
Contact Details:
PEAS Institut AB Söderleden 1
Linköping, Östergötland 58723
Sweden
Tel: +46 13 15 40 30
Website: www.peasinstitut.se
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