WoundPath™ & NailPath™

Each year, about 80,000 adults with diabetes undergo a leg or foot amputation due to a non-healing wound.

This is because, according to Healogics, “chronic wounds are more prevalent among the 30.3 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes who have a 25 percent risk of developing a foot ulcer.”

WoundPath™ (Multiplex Wound RT-PCR Pathogen Testing)

Severe wounds take extensive time to heal, creating the opportunity for bacterial and fungal pathogens to infect the wound. For such chronic wounds, many patients are put on empiric antibiotic therapy. Despite the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, microbes can still easily penetrate the skin through the wound(s), attach to the underlying tissue, and eventually get into the bloodstream. Developing an accurate diagnosis and precise treatment plan is very difficult for these wound cases because traditional culture testing is time-consuming, lacks sensitivity and specificity, and has limited effectiveness when antibiotics have already been administered.

NailPath™ (Multiplex Nail RT-PCR Pathogen Testing)

“Fungal nail infections, also known as “onychomycosis,” are very common,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. “They may affect up to 14% of the general population.”

Nail infections can occur from trauma or cracks in the nail and walking barefoot in public areas, but they are more prevalent among patients with diabetes, immunocompromised illnesses, cardiac conditions, and poor circulation in the arms or legs. Patients with nail infections are often mistreated because bacterial infections in the nail present the same as fungal infections. By not having an accurate diagnosis, secondary infections, such as Staph, can go untreated, consequently spreading through the body and even leading to amputation.

Our RT-PCR WoundPath™ and NailPath™ panels are critical in saving time in the diagnosis and treatment processes. As several pathogens from our large molecular diagnostic testing menu are tested all at once, specimen samples are resulted 6-8 hours from when our lab receives the specimen and the identification of antibiotic resistance genes allows physicians to practice precision medicine by prescribing the correct medication for that specific infection.

Clinical Relevance & Advantages

• Prevents delays in diagnosis and treatment (6-8 hrs from lab arrival)
• Tests for bacterial and fungal pathogens
• Reduces the spread of infection
• Detects polymicrobial infections simultaneously
• Identifies antibiotic-resistant genes
• Allows for precision medicine through narrow-spectrum antibiotics
• Limits unnecessary exposure to broad-spectrum antibiotics
• Unaffected by the use of current medications such as antibiotics
• Cost savings from earlier diagnosis