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Response to Letter: Commenting on our recent paper on point-of-care (POC) for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases on ships,1 S.C. Arya and N. Agarwal rightly point toward extending the concept to noninfectious diseases and appropriate tests. These authors report on a miniaturized POC assay measuring biomarkers for the rapid diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. A key point in the POC concept we presented is the syndrome-based approach of the diagnosis, relying on a few signs and symptoms which could easily be described by the patient himself. Clearly, the syndromebased approach could incorporate various assays for the diagnosis of both infectious and noninfectious diseases, as in the case of an acute chest pain, for example. In any case, POC assays for ships should have common characteristics, including easiness to be performed, reproducibility, rapidity (probably meaning result in less than 1 hour), and the capacity to definitely guide the medical management of the patient in terms of decision to evacuate and to treat. Infectious diseases do have one more specific characteristic which is communicability, taken into account in the medical decision to isolate on-board a patient diagnosed with a contagious infection. We agree that the syndrome-based approach may incorporate rapid tests such as the one reported for the rapid differential diagnosis.2 We have to conjugate lab-on-chip and lab-on-ship, to provide the ship personnel and cruisers with new medical services and make on-board journeys safer.
Pierre-Yves Levy and Michel Drancourt Aix-Marseille Universit´e, M´editerran´ee Infection, Unit´e de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, Marseille, France References 1. Bouricha M, Samad MA, Levy PY, et al. Point-ofcare syndrome-based, rapid diagnosis of infections on commercial ships. J Travel Med 2014; 21:12–16. 2. Wang J, Hong B, Kai J, et al. Mini sensing chip for point-ofcare acute myocardial infarction diagnosis utilizing microelectro-mechanical system and nano-technology. Adv Exp Med Biol 2009; 645:101–107.
© 2014 International Society of Travel Medicine, 1195-1982 Journal of Travel Medicine 2014; Volume 21 (Issue 3): 218
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218
CORRESPONDENCE
Response to Letter: Commenting on our recent paper on point-of-care (POC) for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases on ships,1 S.C. Arya and N. Agarwal rightly point toward extending the concept to noninfectious diseases and appropriate tests. These authors report on a miniaturized POC assay measuring biomarkers for the rapid diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. A key point in the POC concept we presented is the syndrome-based approach of the diagnosis, relying on a few signs and symptoms which could easily be described by the patient himself. Clearly, the syndromebased approach could incorporate various assays for the diagnosis of both infectious and noninfectious diseases, as in the case of an acute chest pain, for example. In any case, POC assays for ships should have common characteristics, including easiness to be performed, reproducibility, rapidity (probably meaning result in less than 1 hour), and the capacity to definitely guide the medical management of the patient in terms of decision to evacuate and to treat. Infectious diseases do have one more specific characteristic which is communicability, taken into account in the medical decision to isolate on-board a patient diagnosed with a contagious infection. We agree that the syndrome-based approach may incorporate rapid tests such as the one reported for the rapid differential diagnosis.2 We have to conjugate lab-on-chip and lab-on-ship, to provide the ship personnel and cruisers with new medical services and make on-board journeys safer.
Pierre-Yves Levy and Michel Drancourt Aix-Marseille Universit´e, M´editerran´ee Infection, Unit´e de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, Marseille, France References 1. Bouricha M, Samad MA, Levy PY, et al. Point-ofcare syndrome-based, rapid diagnosis of infections on commercial ships. J Travel Med 2014; 21:12–16. 2. Wang J, Hong B, Kai J, et al. Mini sensing chip for point-ofcare acute myocardial infarction diagnosis utilizing microelectro-mechanical system and nano-technology. Adv Exp Med Biol 2009; 645:101–107.
© 2014 International Society of Travel Medicine, 1195-1982 Journal of Travel Medicine 2014; Volume 21 (Issue 3): 218
