Gastric lipase enhanced NG Tube study in neonates
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A diagnostic accuracy study evaluating point of care gastric lipase enhanced pH test strip to confirm correct nasogastric tube position in newborn infant
IRAS ID
269978
Contact name
Jayanta Banerjee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
The newborn infants who are sick and those who are born prior to due date (preterm) are admitted to the neonatal unit. These babies are unable to feed through their mouth, so a special tube is passed through their nose to the stomach (nasogastric or NG tube) to provide milk feeds. The bedside nurse inserts the tube and then aspirate some of the fluid from the stomach. As the stomach normally produce acid, these aspirate is then tested on a colour coded paper strip to check if the fluid is acidic. However, on many occasions this test is not very clear. This could be due to misplacement of the tube or the stomach in a newborn not being able to produce enough acid. This then leads to re-siting of another tube and following the same procedure. Sometimes the clinical team may like to do an X Ray to check the position of the tube resulting in unnecessary exposure to radiation. The study will use a special chemical added to the currently existing paper test strip which we believe will enhance the capability of detecting the correct position of the NG tube. This idea has been tested in adults and found to have increased the sensitivity of the test strip significantly. Based on the adult study we will require to test 233 babies to see if this increases the sensitivity of correct NG tube placement. Parents of all babies who requires an NG tube for milk feeds will be approached and after appropriate consent could be recruited to the study. Babies who are clinically very unstable, moribund and those with diagnosis of bowel obstruction will be excluded from the study.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1726
Date of REC Opinion
29 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion