Treatment directing point-of-care diagnostics

Healthcare providers know that timely and accurate Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) diagnosis is crucial for effective treatment and for preventing complications. However, current methods often lead to delays and unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

Llusern’s Lodestar DX provides a new approach. With rapid results at the point of care, healthcare professionals can confidently make informed treatment decisions in minutes, not days. This empowers them to provide targeted therapy, reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and improve patient outcomes.

Lodestar DX is an affordable and rapid molecular testing platform, capable of providing highly accurate results in 35 minutes. Our UTI test panels can be run directly from urine to detect six specific pathogens.

Llusern’s Lodestar DX UTI test eliminates the need for expensive laboratory equipment, complex DNA/RNA extraction processes and highly trained personnel.

The Lodestar DX analyser and testing system is UK CA marked and registered with the European Patent Office (European Patent Application no: 22732302.9) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (no. 18/558,490).

It’s time for a new way to test for Urinary Tract Infections

The gold standard for UTI diagnosis is still considered to be laboratory culture. This is despite lab culture tests taking at least 24 hours to provide a result because of the need to transport the sample to a lab and the time taken to incubate the sample.

The other most common approach to UTI testing is the use of dipsticks. These are cheap to buy and simple to use but have a maxmimum sensitivity of around 74%. According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) dipstick tests “may not accurately diagnose UTIs, are not recommended for all populations and cannot identify the type of bacteria causing the infection.”

A Public Health Wales study conducted in 2022 found that only 33% of urine samples that were cultured returned a positive result. Another 32% were negative. It is likely that these patients were prescribed an antibiotic by their GP based on vague symptoms when, in fact, they had no infection.

By providing accurate identification of bacteria in 35 minutes, Lodestar UTI has the ability to tackle a significant everyday health problem faced by millions of people of all ages around the globe.