25 May 2018 - - Paris, France-based biotechnology company PathoQuest has commenced enrollment of adult and pediatric patients in a medico-economic study of its metagenomic iDTECT Blood test for infectious bacterial and viral pathogens in immunocompromised patients, the company said.
IDENTIFY, a multicenter prospective study, will assess the performance of iDTECT Blood to identify the causal pathogen for bloodstream infection in patients treated for acute leukemia or receiving stem cell transplants who develop febrile neutropenia.
Results from iDTECT Blood will be compared to those from conventional testing methods, which typically include blood cultures or PCR testing. Information on clinical and resource utilization will also be collected for key dimensions associated with the management of patients with febrile neutropenia.
Using a single blood sample, iDETECT Blood provides treatment teams with a culture-free method for detecting more than 1,200 bacterial or viral pathogens in a turn-around time of 48 hours.
The test is run in microbiology laboratories accredited for the method.
PathoQuest is developing improved sample preparation methods and metagenomic testing for better detection of pathogens in biologic samples.
The company is also developing information technology tools and analytical software for analysis of sequencing data.