Dear OTW Reader:
Has Dr. Javad Parvizi found THE solution for infection detection?…Applicant boom at HSS (and elsewhere)…James Lightman New VP at Wright…Are theresurprises in store for young orthopedists flocking to hospital employment?…and more.
New Kit Rules Out Infection!
Javad Parvizi, M.D., director of research for The Rothman Institute in Philadelphia, tellsOTW, “To date, all of the existing tests to diagnose infection have been difficult to use and have a low rate of accuracy. For the past six years my colleagues and I have been trying to develop some sort of molecular diagnosis for periprosthetic joint infection. We have removed the fluid from the joint and analyzed it for molecular markers; so far we have had great success with three markers. Our work, which has been recognized by the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons and the Knee Society, involves one marker for leukocyte elastase, one for alpha two macroglobulin, and another for synovial c reactive protein. These three tests have been examined in a large cohort of patients with near 100% accuracy in distinguishing between sepsis and non sepsis. The work on leukocyte elastase was just published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Our plan is to formulate a kit—much like a pregnancy test—that will be available to doctors who need to aspirate joints to rule out or confirm infection. The best news? This is real time information…and it costs a whopping $8 per kit. We anticipate that the kits will be commercially available later this year.”
Read More Here: http://ryortho.com/spine.php?article=713_On-and-Off-the-Record&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Twitter+for+iPhone
