A new blood test developed by doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have devised a new blood test that aims to detect the early stages of irritable bowel syndrome.
According to the Silver Ink, Dr. Mark Pimentel from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of Los Angeles has discovered a new blood test that effectively identifies and diagnoses irritable bowel syndrome, a disease that affects millions of Americans daily. Irritable bowel syndrome is a gastrointestinal disease that can produce symptoms such as cramping, gas, bloating, constipation, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Until now, there has not been an effective method of diagnosing the disease before these symptoms become out of control. Without any conclusive tests or apparent physical evidence of the disorder, doctors even began to wonder if irritable bowel syndrome was a psychological disorder.
The blood test developed in the Los Angeles hospital measures the levels of certain types of antibodies present in the blood. The antibodies identified by the new blood test are typically released in response to a specific toxin caused by bacteria present in food poisoning cases. By identifying the presence of this antibody, doctors can begin treatment before the immune system causes serious damage to the digestive tract.
IBS, the researchers have learned, is the result of your body’s defense system doing more harm than good. Even after the bacterial toxin that caused the antibiotic response has been completely eliminated from the gut, the antibodies remain and continue to attack the affected area.
According to Dr. Jon LaPook, a practicing gastroenterologist and internist, blood tests are not always perfect. When the test showed positive, most patients were confirmed to be affected by IBS. The test only showed positive for 44 percent of the total sample patients who actually suffered from IBS. Clearly, the new blood test is effective at diagnosing IBS based on the presence of certain antibodies. But what about the cases where a negative test result failed to identify the disease?
As it turns out, there are a number of other factors that can lead to ongoing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, including genetics and prior life events affecting the digestive system. While the test can’t detect every case of IBS, it will provide the opportunity for early and targeted treatments in the cases it is able to find.
