An observational study in Pneumococcal Infections, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection and Influenza Infection, sponsored by University Hospital, Geneva. Recruiting at 1 site in Switzerland. Open to participants aged 60 Years to 85 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-05-31.
Sponsored by University Hospital, Geneva · Observational
The NoseSpn-Elderly study aims at characterizing the immune response in the upper respiratory tract in adults aged 60 and over diagnosed with a pneumonia due to a Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) infection. The immune response during the acute phase of the infection and after recovery will be compared to the immune response of asymptomatic Spn carriers as well as to the immune response of patients diagnosed with a viral respiratory infection (flu or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)).
The primary objective of this observational study is to quantify the inflammatory response in the nasal cavity and to correlate it with bacterial/viral load and with clinical parameters. The study also aims to compare the inflammatory response measured in the nose to that measured in the blood.
Participants will have two study visits including a blood draw, several nasal samplings (nasal lining fluid and nasal cells) and a saliva sampling, one within 72 hours of their hospital admission and another one month later. Nasal lining fluid and saliva will be obtained every two or three days until discharge from the hospital or resolution of symptoms. During those visits, questions regarding symptoms will be asked.
298 studies on the registry are indexed under Pneumococcal Infections; 26 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 280 is below the median of 810 across 43 observational studies indexed under Pneumococcal Infections.
Browse Pneumococcal Infections studies →University Hospital, Geneva is the lead sponsor of 379 studies on the registry; 70 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Group 1 and group 2 participants will be recruited among patients hospitalized or consulting the emergencies at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). Group 3 participants will be recruited among participants of other HUG studies involving healthy adults as well as from the general population.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia due to a Streptococcus pneumoniae infection
Patients hospitalized with flu-like symptoms and a laboratory-confirmed influenza or RSV infection
Healthy people screened for asymptomatic carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae
Pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in nasal fluid by a multiplex assay
Time frame: 1 month
Phenotypes and frequencies of immune in nasal cavity and in blood cells by flow cytometry
Time frame: 1 month
Antibody titers in nasal cavity and blood by antigen-specific ELISA
Time frame: 1 month
Bacterial load and viral load in nasal cavity by specific qPCR assay
Time frame: 1 month
Levels of serum cytokines by multiplex assay
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 1: pneumonia diagnostic
Probability of diagnosis of pneumonia (on a 3-Likert scale: low, intermediate and high level of probability)
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 2: CURB65 severity score
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 3: nature and severity of symptoms (CAP score)
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 4: number of days with fever
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 5: number of days with oxygen
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 6: highest FiO2
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 7: cardiac complication
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 8: secondary bacterial infection
Only for group 2 patients (viral infection)
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 9: transfer to ICU or IMCU
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 10: length of stay in intensive care
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 11: intubation or mechanical ventilation
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 12: transfer to rehabilitation or institutionalization
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 13: mortality
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 14: rehospitalization
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 15: medical consultation for a respiratory disease
Time frame: 1 month
Clinical outcome measure 16: new prescription of antibiotics or corticosteroids
Time frame: 1 month
Started Dec 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Nov 2026, 23 months after the start.
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