24-08-07 (Reported by SBS news on Jul. 25, 2024)

Reporter: Medical Journalist Dongchan Jo

News video: https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1007737533

Sepsis is a dangerous disease where bacteria spread into the bloodstream, increasing the mortality rate by 9% every hour. A research team in our country (S. Korea) has found a way to significantly reduce the testing time for identifying sepsis, thereby cutting the mortality rate by more than half.

This is Medical Journalist Dongchan Jo reporting.

This researcher is culturing blood from a sepsis patient to identify the type of bacteria.

[Hyelyn Joo / Researcher of Seoul National University (SNU) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department: “The total time required for culturing is at least 2 days.”]

It takes an additional day to find an effective antibiotic for the specific patient.

However, the mortality rate of Sepsis increases by 9% every hour.

This makes the three days it takes to find an appropriate antibiotic extremely critical for the patient.

The domestic sepsis mortality rate is as high as 38%.

The number of sepsis deaths per 100,000 people has jumped nearly fourfold, from 3.7 in 2011 to 12.5 in 2021.

The SNU research team is rapidly culturing blood from 190 sepsis patients by separating their blood with nano magnetic particles.

In just a few hours, they rush into finding suitable antibiotics.

[Haewook Jang / Researcher of SNU ECE Department: “This is a process of loading samples on a chip for antibiotic sensitivity testing.”]

Each of the dozens of circles represents a cluster of antibiotics, and artificial intelligence detects and highlights the subtle changes that indicate which bacteria are responding.

[Junwon Kang / Researcher of SNU ECE Department: “When a patient’s sample is implemented, only the micro disc corresponding to the patient’s bacterium is lighted.”]

Once the bacteria causing the sepsis are identified, they are transferred in real-time to an adjacent machine to determine the most effective antibiotics.

[Sunghoon Kwon / Professor of SNU ECE Department: “Antibiotics that have resistance (to the patient’s bacteria) will only cause side effects if used. This device quickly selects the most effective antibiotic.”]

The time required to find an appropriate antibiotic has been reduced from 3 days to 13 hours.

The results are nearly identical to those of the 3-day test, with a 94% consistency rate.

According to clinical results from Seoul National University Hospital, even reducing the testing time to 24 hours cuts the sepsis mortality rate by more than half.

This research has been published and revealed today (the 25th of July) in the prestigious journal Nature.

Source: https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?newsId=N1007737533&plink=THUMB&cooper=SBSNEWSPROGRAM

Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr