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New research from Ohio State University's College of Medicine has potentially uncovered a new way to detect fibromyalgia with a blood test. Although optimistic, the authors of the study stress that more work is needed before a blood test can be created based on their work.
The researchers, led by rheumatologist Kevin Hackshaw, published the results of their work in the Journal of biological chemistry. The study examined 50 people with fibromyalgia, 29 with rheumatoid arthritis, 19 with osteoarthritis and 23 with lupus.
By researching a "metabolic fingerprint" or specific patterns of molecules in the blood of fibromyalgia patients using vibrational spectroscopy, Hackshaw and colleagues have been able to distinguish between fibromyalgia and the other conditions of fibromyalgia. sample. He also noted that the test could determine the severity of your fibromyalgia.
"These first results are remarkable," said Luis Rodriguez-Saona, co-author of the study, in a Press release. "If we can help speed up the diagnosis in these patients, their treatment will be better and their prospects will be better. There is nothing worse than being in a gray area where you do not know what illness you have. "
Fibromyalgia can cause chronic pain all over the body, fatigue and sleep problems, and problems with thinking or memory, such as "brain fog."Historically, many doctors dismissed the disease and told patients that it was"all in their heads. Hackshaw hopes that research that could lead to a real test to diagnose fibromyalgia could help patients get a better diagnosis faster.
Rodriguez-Saona explained that the next step was to replicate the results in a larger and more diverse sample to determine the validity of their initial work and to identify what differentiates blood from people with fibromyalgia. He and Hackshaw hope to develop a blood test based on research results within five years.
Although two blood tests already claim to diagnose fibromyalgia – FM / a blood test and IsolateFibromyalgia – Both are based on research funded solely for the purpose of creating a test conducted by commercial companies that have not yet been replicated by a completely impartial third party. The authors of this new warning on research must still work before they can create a reliable blood test.
"We can look back into some of these fingerprints and potentially identify some of the chemicals badociated with the differences we're seeing," Rodriguez-Saona said in a press release. This would include identifying which proteins or acids distinguish patterns in the blood of people with fibromyalgia.
Hackshaw and Rodriguez-Saona hope their work will lead to a better diagnostic test for fibromyalgia and, therefore, better treatment options. They remain optimistic about the results of their study.
"Today, most doctors do not ask if fibromyalgia is real, but there are always skeptics," Hackshaw said. "We have found clear reproducible metabolic patterns in the blood of dozens of fibromyalgia patients. This brings us much closer to a blood test than ever before. "
Header image via Zinkevych / Getty Images.
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