Week 3 - Diagnostic testing for respiratory pathogens

Question 1

List the different diagnostic testing methods for respiratory pathogens

Answer 1

Culture: infectious pathogen
Antigen/biochemical: protein
Nucleic Acid: pathogen genetic material
Serology: immune antibody

Question 2

What is the process of specimen handling?

Answer 2

Collection > Transport > Processing & Testing > Storage

Question 3

What are the specimen types for respiratory pathogen detection?

Answer 3

Nasopharyngeal (NP) and Oropharyngeal (OP) swabs - Gold Standard

Lower respiratory tract specimens - PCR, more invasive NP/OP, direct detection from sterile site
– not very pleasant

Whole blood and/or serum - culture, PCR of acute serum samples, antibody detection of paired serum samples

Question 4

Interpret a Real Time RT-PCR graph and table

Answer 4

See slide 24-25

Important points:
- Lower CT count = more virus present
- CT = cycles it took to cross threshold line
- RNP = Are you human

Question 5

What are the benefits and risks of the paradigm shift in healthcare disruption?

(This is regarding the shift to relying on technical devices to connect to cloud services)

Answer 5

Benefits:
- Distributed healthcare with easier access
- Personalized, On-demand
- Can be coupled with over the counter antivirals

Risks:
- Missed diagnoses due to lack of clinician engagement
- Interface to medical home uncertain
- Connection to public health not developed

Question 6

How is IoMT (cloud services) transforming healthcare?

Answer 6

Faster diagnosis and treatment

(But challenging to fid ways to aggregate the findings for better PH surveillance)

Question 7

What are the characteristics of new diagnostic technology?

Answer 7

Low cost, high sensitivity, fast