Alliance Medical Ltd.

Having bacteria in the blood can be very dangerous. This is called bacteraemia (or bacteremia) or bloodstream infection. It can lead to problems across the whole body, which is what happens in sepsis. Bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) cause one kind of bacteraemia. Up to a third of people with this condition die within three months, even with antibiotics. One reason for such severe problems is that the bacteria can spread almost anywhere in the body, and hide in places where they are very hard to find. When people with S. aureus bacteraemia come into hospital and have had antibiotics, doctors sometimes cannot tell if they still have an infection source (called a 'focus') hiding in their body. The focus can be like an abscess and may need removing or the pus draining out. A focus might be obvious, if there is pain or swelling, or it might be hidden and deep. If these 'foci' can be found, then doctors can treat them and this helps to cure patients.
To improve survival for patients with these life-threatening infections, it is vital that doctors find the focus of S. aureus bacteraemia as quickly as possible. However, the research team do not know the best way to do this. Most patients with S. aureus bacteraemia have a chest X-ray and a scan of the heart valves. Patients may go to the scanning department lots of times while doctors try to work out where these foci are. This is uncomfortable and takes a lot of time. In about 1 in 5 cases the doctors still cannot find the focus. This is very worrying for patients, their relatives and doctors.
This study has been designed by researchers, doctors and patient advocates. It aims to work out if fewer patients may die when a specific type of scan called a 'PET/CT' is done quickly, because it finds more foci. To do this the team plan to do a clinical trial in patients with S. aureus bacteraemia. Half of the patients will receive the usual tests that patients currently get and the other half will receive an extra scan as soon as possible. The patients will be chosen randomly (like the flip of a coin) to go into one of the 2 groups. A year into the trial, an independent committee will check the results to make sure the extra scan is finding more foci. If this is the case, the trial will carry on. At the end of the study, we will share the results globally. The findings are expected to change the way this dangerous condition is managed, so patients do better.