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    Jefferson Adams
    Jefferson Adams

    Cheap, Fast New Test Promises Accurate Results for Celiac Disease, Other Disorders

    Reviewed and edited by a celiac disease expert.

    Celiac.com 07/26/2012 - For people with celiac disease, the average delay from first symptoms to professional diagnosis is almost 12 years. Moreover, once those people seek medical attention, there is a high risk of misdiagnosis. In fact, researchers estimate that seven cases of celiac disease go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for every case that is correctly identified.

    Photo: CC--Horia VarlanCurrent tests for celiac disease require a doctor to conduct a biopsy, followed by a professional analysis of the biopsy results, usually at a specialized lab. Using this method, each test is invasive, often takes several days to produce results, and costs many hundreds of dollars.

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A12):
    That is all set to change thanks to a pioneering new testing system that offers quick, accurate, cost-effective diagnosis and monitoring of celiac disease. The pioneering new test was developed with EU-funding, and will soon undergo clinical trials in Slovenia. If those trials are successful the test should be available in hospitals and clinics across Europe and elsewhere within a few years.

    The technology was developed in the celiac disease-Medics project by a consortium of 20 partners with funding from the European Commission. The system is the result of a confluence of innovative technologies from several scientific disciplines including microfluidics, nanotechnology and genetic testing.

    In addition to celiac disease, the technology can also be used to diagnose and monitor a wide variety of other diseases, including autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondylitis, thyroiditis, and even cancer - basically any disorder that can be detected by looking for DNA or protein markers.

    Before celiac disease-Medics, explains project coordinator Ciara O'Sullivan, a research professor in the Nanobiotechnology & Bioanalysis Group at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain, "there was nothing like this available for celiac disease."

    Rather than costs of several hundred dollars for a normal biopsy and analysis for celiac disease, the new celiac disease-Medics test will cost less than twenty Euro, and the biomedical interface device a one-time clinic expense of about 6,000 Euro.

    Instead of an invasive biopsy, the new test requires only one drop of blood placed into a device that looks like a credit card, but incorporates several innovative components: a micro-structured fluid network for precise control reagents, a specially adapted surface for capturing the biological components being sought, and an electrically driven sensor system that provides fast detection.

    Once the sample is taken, the disposable device will be placed into a biomedical interface instrument and analysis of the blood sample is carried out in a matter of minutes. Results can then be immediately output to the hospital information system and added to the patient's electronic health record (EHR).

    Prof O'Sullivan says that the device provides both DNA testing - specifically for variants of the HLA gene associated with the disease - and testing for gluten antibodies. This is important, because testing either alone can return false positives. Testing for both means the results ensures accurate results.

    Because the device can detect gluten antibodies, it can be used to monitor the patient's response to gluten-free treatment

    Trials will be conducted over the summer on two to three hundred patients at University Medical Centre Maribor in Slovenia. Results will be compared to the results of celiac tests done with analyzed tissue samples from biopsies.

    'We hope to have a product on the market within two years,' Prof O'Sullivan says. 'We are also looking to launch a follow-up project, probably with public funding, to adapt and extend the system to test for and monitor many other types of diseases.'

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    Guest Glenn Ribotsky

    Posted

    We shall see just how accurate this is.

     

    Certainly, in the past, we've had a lot of tests developed celebrated as "breakthroughs" that turned out not to be specific or sensitive enough.

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    Guest Cyndi

    Posted

    We shall see just how accurate this is.

     

    Certainly, in the past, we've had a lot of tests developed celebrated as "breakthroughs" that turned out not to be specific or sensitive enough.

    How is this test any different from existing tests? Right now, anyone can get blood tests for gluten antibodies and for the associated genes. Yes, the new test would be a lot simpler and cheaper, which is good, but if antibodies plus genes aren't the gold standard now, why would they be with the new version of the tests? And if we can make the new test sufficient for diagnosis, why would anyone get a biopsy? Right now, blood tests plus known gluten sensitivity is enough, though many doctors go for the invasion test to "confirm." (There are false negatives with the biopsies of course because you can't be certain you snipped part of the gut that is damaged.)

     

    Based on the article, I'm not seeing any changes in diagnostics, other than that the tests are much cheaper than before (assuming $20 is the consumer price) so more people will take them and more people with celiac will use them for monitoring. If there is something different about this test, please make that clear.

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    Guest Peter Olins

    Posted

    How is this test any different from existing tests? Right now, anyone can get blood tests for gluten antibodies and for the associated genes. Yes, the new test would be a lot simpler and cheaper, which is good, but if antibodies plus genes aren't the gold standard now, why would they be with the new version of the tests? And if we can make the new test sufficient for diagnosis, why would anyone get a biopsy? Right now, blood tests plus known gluten sensitivity is enough, though many doctors go for the invasion test to "confirm." (There are false negatives with the biopsies of course because you can't be certain you snipped part of the gut that is damaged.)

     

    Based on the article, I'm not seeing any changes in diagnostics, other than that the tests are much cheaper than before (assuming $20 is the consumer price) so more people will take them and more people with celiac will use them for monitoring. If there is something different about this test, please make that clear.

    You hit the nail on the head, Cyndi. It would be a breakthrough if a definitive celiac diagnosis could be made without biopsy, but so far, no blood test has been found that can replace this unpleasant procedure. (The only possible exception is in cases where there is an extremely high anti-TG2 antibody level.) While it is possible that the company has unpublished results supporting their claims, we need to wait until the data can be reviewed independently.

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  • About Me

    Jefferson Adams

    Jefferson Adams is Celiac.com's senior writer and Digital Content Director. He earned his B.A. and M.F.A. at Arizona State University. His articles, essays, poems, stories and book reviews have appeared in numerous magazines, journals, and websites, including North American Project, Antioch Review, Caliban, Mississippi Review, Slate, and more. He is the author of more than 2,500 articles on celiac disease. His university coursework includes studies in science, scientific methodology, biology, anatomy, physiology, medicine, logic, and advanced research. He previously devised health and medical content for Colgate, Dove, Pfizer, Sharecare, Walgreens, and more. Jefferson has spoken about celiac disease to the media, including an appearance on the KQED radio show Forum, and is the editor of numerous books, including "Cereal Killers" by Scott Adams and Ron Hoggan, Ed.D.

    >VIEW ALL ARTICLES BY JEFFERSON ADAMS

     


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