Methanol

Every year, thousands of people are poisoned by methanol, often in outbreaks affecting the poorest in society.

Effective treatment is possible by blocking the metabolism of methanol to formate by inhibiting alcohol dehydrogenase with fomepizole or ethanol. However, such treatment can only follow early diagnosis of methanol poisoning, ideally within 12-24 hours.

Unfortunately, diagnosis is difficult because methanol poisoning is a great imitator, resembling many medical conditions.

Diagnosis has previously been complex, expensive, and slow, requiring measurement of blood methanol concentrations in a laboratory.

There is therefore an urgent need to develop new forms of early diagnosis.

What are we doing?

We are testing a new point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tool, which can detect methanol poisoning from a single drop of blood.

This is being tested in hospitals in Bangladesh and India. Doctors and nurses are using the test at the bedside of all patients with suspected methanol poisoning or metabolic acidosis of unknown origin.

Our aim is to test the use, feasibility, sensitivity, specificity, cost, and efficacy of the POC test in clinical practice in diverse low and middle-income country settings.

We will combine traditional observational research on efficacy with field validation and social acceptability research to ensure it can be used well in clinical practice. These data will be used to design a large cluster randomized controlled trial to establish whether the POC test improves therapy, reduces waste, and improves outcome.

Work Package 1 Investigators