AMetIP-IE Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Accuracy of Metagenomic Blood Sampling to Identify Pathogen in Infective Endocarditis Patients
IRAS ID
280992
Contact name
Simon Woldman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
BartsHealth Nhs Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, days
Research summary
Infective endocarditis is a serious infection of the heart, usually caused by bacteria and fungi. This study aims to assess a new technology, clinical metagenomics, to identify the infecting organism in 200 sequential patients presenting to Barts Health NHS Trust with Infective Endocarditis
Endocarditis can be catastrophic and result in death, heart failure, stroke, renal failure and other complications. Damage to the heart valves requires surgery in approximately 50% of patients with endocarditis; early antibiotic treatment reduces complications and improves prognosis, reducing the need for surgery and improves mortality. A key part of the treatment is the accurate determination of the causative organism which allows appropriate, targeted antibiotic and antifungal medication to be administered.
Accurate antibiotic regimes require detection of the causative organism and its sensitivities to each antibiotic. The current best technique for identifying bacteria is blood culture where organisms are identified by growing them from blood samples. However, this takes up to 5 days from sampling, resulting in delays to the correct diagnosis.
Accurate identification of the causative organism may be the first step in reducing mortality and kidney damage.
An alternative technique for identifying the causative organism is metagenomics. Study of genetic material recovered from blood allows the sequencing of bacterial DNA allowing precise identification of the infecting organism. This technique, when scaled up, has the potential to produce a result within 6 hours allowing early targeted antibiotics to be used.
This study will compare the results of clinical metagenomics to blood culture in 200 patients presenting to St Bartholomew’s hospital, one of the largest centres treating this condition globally. This study is run in collaboration with the Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB) in Norwich (UK). Experimental work will be carried out by QIB researchers in line with institutional policies for working with human tissue samples.'REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/YH/0201
Date of REC Opinion
5 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion