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A pilot clinical study was carried out using the SmartWound swab test (referred to as the SPaCE diagnostic) on patient volunteers in 4 NHS hospitals.
The SPaCE pilot diagnostic study tested the accuracy of the novel point of care sensor on volunteers with a burn wound infection.
The results of the pilot study were published in November 2020 in The Journal of hospital infection 106(4):726-733 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.09.033).
This pilot study concluded that the diagnostic provided valuable and timely data to support clinical decision-making on wound infection at point of care (PoC) .
The Technology – brief overview.
The SPaCE PoC (point of care) swab sensor kit is a cost effective, fast method of assessing wound health. Wounds are swabbed as part of standard care, the swab placed in our patented vesicle gel, left for up to 15 minutes in the hand-held device while awaiting colour change. Bright green colour means that virulence factors associated with SPaCE pathogens were detected.
The SPaCE wound swab sensor responds to the four key microbial pathogens found in infected wounds:
The colour change is easily seen by eye (right): Fluorescent green response = SPaCE pathogen positive; dull orange: SPaCE pathogen negative.
[1] Patent number US9499852 B2 Priority date12/01/12
[2] N.T. Thet, D. R. Alves, J. E. Bean, S. Booth, J. Nzakizwanayo, A.E.R. Young, B. V. Jones, A.T.A. Jenkins, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2016, 8, 14909- 14919
