Portsmouth to trial new blood test to predict sepsis

Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital is trialing a test that could reduce burden on the NHS by predicting sepsis in patients, potentially saving thousands of UK lives a year.

The test, originally researched over 10 years at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, is now being developed by government spin-out company Presymptom Health which believes it could save billions of pounds globally and improve clinical outcomes for sepsis patients.

Presymptom Health believes the technology can predict whether a patient will develop sepsis around three days before symptoms appear, enabling clinicians to treat them much sooner and manage them more effectively.

The trials are being led by Dr Paul Schmidt and his team at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, with two other sites anticipated to go live during the summer. Up to 600 patients admitted to hospital with respiratory tract infections will be given the option to participate in the trial.

Professor Dame Angela McLean, Chief Scientific Adviser for MOD, said: “The announcement today is a great step forward in finding potential new ways to tackle sepsis, which causes up to 48,000 deaths and significant life-changing effects in nearly 80,000 people in the UK every year. The seminal work led by Dstl, now taken forward by Presymptom Health, has the potential to provide the technology capable of detecting sepsis early, enabling more rapid treatment, and saving lives.”

An estimated 49 million people a year contract sepsis globally, while in the UK almost two million patients admitted to hospital each year are thought to be at risk of developing the condition.