• Thomas Waterfield, Bethany Patenall, James McKenna, and Derek Fairley.
• Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
• Emerg Med J. 2017 Dec 1; 34 (12): A895.

BackgroundDespite successful vaccination programmes meningococcal disease (MD) remains the leading infectious cause of septicaemia and death in children in the UK and Ireland.1,2 The early diagnosis of MD significantly improves outcomes with reduced morbidity and mortality.1,2 The early stages of MD are often indistinguishable from a simple viral illness making an early positive diagnosis of MD difficult.1 Hibergene have developed a commercially available bedside Loop-mediated isothermal AMPlification PCR (LAMP-MD) test that is a highly sensitive 0.89 (95%CI 0.72-0.96) and specific 1.0 (95%CI 0.97-1.0) for identifying children with invasive MD (4) (figure 1).emermed;34/12/A895-a/F1F1F1Figure 1 AIMS: The aims of this RCEM funded study were:Assess the ease of use and suitability for the EDDetermine the time taken to perform the testIndependently verify LAMP-MD performance against TaqMan quantitative PCR.MethodThe LAMP-MD was assessed for practicality and ease of use within the ED including an assessment of training needs, footprint and health and safety requirements.For verification of the Hibergene LAMP-MD analyser and assay we used dry nasopharyngeal swabs sent for viral screening. Additional verification was undertaken using N. meningitidis genomic DNA spiked over a range of concentrations. This included serotypes A, B, C, W, X and Y and a dilution series to determine the limit of detection. All samples were then analysed using real time TaqMan qPCR.ResultsThe LAMP-MD analyser was easy to use and could be accommodated in the EDThe mean time for detection of Meningococcal DNA was 14.01 minDetection of meningococcal serogroups A, B, C, W, X and Z was confirmedThe detection limit for dry nasopharyngeal swabs was below 2 genomic copies per µlNo non-specific amplification was observed in 17 randomly selected negative clinical swabsThe LAMP-MD assay was 100% sensitive and specific relative to real-time TaqMAN PCR.ConclusionLAMP-MD is a practical, rapid point of care test that can reliably detect all Meningococcal serotypes in less than 15 min.Funding has been secured to perform a PERUKI supported study to investigate the potential for LAMP-MD in the diagnosis of meningococcal disease in children.ReferencesMeningitis Research Foundation. Meningococcal Meningitis and Septicaemia Guidance Notes2014.Ó Maoldomhnaigh, et al. Invasive meningococcal diseasein children in Ireland. PMID: 27566800.NICE. Management of petechial rash.Bourke TW, et al. Diagnostic accuracy of loop-mediated isothermal amplification as a near-patient test for meningococcal diseasein children. PMID: 25728843.© 2017, Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

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