New blood test detects 24 diseases – healing practice

Metabolic blood test could revolutionize disease diagnosis

Metabolic disorders like diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses such as heart attack and myocardial failure, but also neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or various cancer – the risk of all these diseases can be increased by a single new one, according to a recent study blood test to discover, the metabolites analyzed in the blood.

researchers of Berlin Institute of Health at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, with a working group from University College of London developed a blood test that 168 metabolites evaluate. In this way, conclusions can be drawn 24 common diseases to draw. The research results were recently published in the renowned journal “natural medicine” present.

Diseases are often recognized too late

controls are complex, expensive and generally tailored to a single disease. Many diseases are therefore only diagnosed at a very advanced stage, because there are often no serious symptoms in the early stages or because the first symptoms cannot be attributed to the correct cause.

For example, a person who constantly suffers from vertigo usually does not consult 20 different doctors to determine the cause. Therefore, it often remains unclear whether the symptoms are caused, for example, by a neurological disease, a tumor or a metabolic disease.

Diseases are best treatable in the early stages

However, it is precisely in the early stages of a disease that the chances of a cure or benign course are greatest. If various diseases could be explained more easily, chances of survival and quality of life would improve for thousands of people.

Blood test assesses risk of 24 diseases

To achieve this, the Charité and University College London task force has developed a new blood test that measures 168 different metabolic products, called metabolitesassessed in blood.

An artificial intelligence can do it based on metabolites Assess the risk of many diseasesbecause many diseases are associated with a typical metabolic profile.

“Recent studies have shown that individual metabolic products – or metabolites – are relevant to the development of a variety of diseases”approved Jacob Steinfeldt of the research team.

“We hypothesized that the combination of several different metabolites could provide clues to the risk of different diseases at the same time”reports Steinfeldt.

How was the test developed?

Thanks to more blood samples 100,000 patientscollected over 15 years and stored in the UK biobank, the team was able to metabolic profiles of 24 diseases and determine their course.

From there, the researchers used artificial intelligence to calculate a model that predicts the likelihood of a certain combination of metabolites in the blood developing. predicts future illness.

More accurate than previously available models

“We checked the predictive power of the metabolite profiles and compared them to classical risk calculation methods.”added Thor Burgelwho is the first author of the study with Jakob Steinfeldt.

“The profiles have been shown to improve risk prediction for the majority of diseases studied when we combine them with information about participants’ age and biological sex.”according to Burgel.

In this way, the combination of age, biological sex and metabolic profile predicted the risk of diseases such as diabetes or heart failure more accurately than previously established risk models, which are usually based on a measure of cholesterol and blood sugar based.

A test costs less than 20 euros

In addition, the test is very cheap to perform – less than 20 euros should a metabolic blood test cost, according to the task force.

“It’s interesting because we can use the metabolome to estimate the risk of multiple diseases at the same time.”stress Professor Ulf Landmesser of the research team.

The test can identify those at high risk

“Of course, after a risk alert due to abnormalities in the blood, we would examine the patient further before intervening”explains Professor Landmesser.

According to him, such a test is exactly the right method to motivate people of a certain age to take regular examinations.

Initial assessment of the most appropriate treatment

According to the researchers, the test even provides an initial assessment of the most suitable treatment for the patient and the relevance of a preventive intervention.

“Again, we saw that metabolomic analysis combined with information on age and sex was equal or even better than traditional analysis in identifying people who might benefit from preventive intervention in the form of drugs or lifestyle changes.”abstract Professor Roland Eils.

Widely applicable

“We then successfully validated our model in four other large population studies in the Netherlands and the UK, indicating that our models are widely applicable.”, emphasizes Professor Eils in conclusion. (vb)