Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Straße 8, 06112, Halle (Saale), Germany.
BMC Prim Care. 2022 Mar 9;23(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s12875-022-01643-9.
Point-of-care testing (POCT) has numerous potential benefits to improve health care service, especially in resource-limited settings. We aim to identify which POC-tests (POCTs) of laboratory parameters are known, employed, and rated as useful by general practitioners (GPs).
A questionnaire with 27 POCTs was posted to a random selection of GPs (n = 451) in Saxony, Germany.
A total of 208 GPs replied (response rate 46.1%). Out of 27 POCTs, each GP knew an average of 20.3 as laboratory parameters and 9.2 as POCTs. Urine test strips (99.0%), blood glucose test (98.1%), and Troponin I/T (86.4%) were the best-known, followed by INR/Quick (82.5%), Microalbumin (79.1%), and D-dimer (78.6%) POCTs. Yet, solely 0 to 13 POC tests were actually used (mean value 4.6). Urine test strips were employed most frequently (97.6%), followed by blood glucose test (94.7%), Troponin I/T (57.8%), Microalbumin (57.3%), and INR/Quick POCTs (41.7%). Heart fatty binding protein (H-FABP), Syphilis, Coeliac disease, and Malaria appeared as the least frequently used POCTs. The majority of the GPs declared 14 of the 27 POCTs to be useful.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The most recurrently employed POCTs are those for diagnosing or monitoring diabetes mellitus, ensued by POCTs addressing acute cardiovascular diseases (Troponin I/T, D-dimer) or monitoring the therapy of infectious diseases or the anticoagulant therapy. POCTs most often rated as useful by GPs are also widely known and frequently used. Nonetheless, the majority of GPs rate only a very limited number of POCTs as useful. Frequent concerns might be low economic benefit, over-reliance, and test accuracy coming along with the complex implementation of the tests requiring technical skills, accurate storage, and the correct interpretation of test results.
In accordance with the (Model) Professional Code for Physicians in Germany, neither human body materials nor data that can be assigned to a specific human being are used in our study. A declaration of no objection from the Ethics Committee of the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Medical Faculty) confirms no professional or ethical concerns due to completely anonymized data collection and analysis. Our study was therefore not registered in a corresponding registry.
即时检验（POCT）在改善医疗服务方面具有众多潜在优势，尤其在资源有限的环境下。本研究旨在确定一般从业者（GP）了解、使用和认为有用的实验室参数 POCT。
我们向德国萨克森州的随机选择的 GP（n=451）发送了一份包含 27 种 POCT 的问卷。
共有 208 名 GP 回复（应答率 46.1%）。在 27 种 POCT 中，每位 GP 平均了解 20.3 种实验室参数和 9.2 种 POCT。尿试纸条（99.0%）、血糖检测（98.1%）和肌钙蛋白 I/T（86.4%）的知晓率最高，其次是 INR/Quick（82.5%）、微量白蛋白（79.1%）和 D-二聚体（78.6%）。然而，实际上仅使用 0 至 13 种 POCT（平均值 4.6）。尿试纸条使用最频繁（97.6%），其次是血糖检测（94.7%）、肌钙蛋白 I/T（57.8%）、微量白蛋白（57.3%）和 INR/Quick POCT（41.7%）。心脏型脂肪酸结合蛋白（H-FABP）、梅毒、乳糜泻和疟疾的使用频率最低。大多数 GP 认为 27 种 POCT 中有 14 种有用。
讨论/结论：最常使用的 POCT 是用于诊断或监测糖尿病的检测，其次是用于诊断或监测急性心血管疾病（肌钙蛋白 I/T、D-二聚体）或监测传染病或抗凝治疗的 POCT。GP 认为有用的 POCT 也广为人知且经常使用。然而，大多数 GP 仅将非常有限数量的 POCT 评为有用。常见的担忧可能是经济利益低、过度依赖、测试准确性，同时测试实施复杂，需要技术技能、准确存储和正确解释测试结果。
根据德国（模型）医师专业规范，我们的研究未使用人体材料或可归因于特定个体的数据。马丁-路德-哈勒-维滕贝格大学（医学系）伦理委员会的不反对声明证实，由于完全匿名的数据收集和分析，不存在专业或道德方面的担忧。因此，我们的研究未在相应的注册处注册。
