Health & Medicine
Can a new Blood Test Determine if an Infection is Bacterial or Viral?
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Sep 19, 2013 04:07 PM EDT
A new study shows a blood test that can help determine whether an infection is bacterial or viral-based.
Researchers tracked new epidemics or viruses including MERS in this experimental study in order to achieve a print of the immune system and determine how genes in the system are changing to combat various problems.
Lead study author Geofrey Ginsburg who is also a genomic medicine chief from Duke worked with colleagues to conduct a trial in 102 people on the test's effectiveness.
As laboratory tests do not always provide accurate results and sometimes fail to detect infections, scientists cultivated blood samples in order to determine if bacteria was the culprit of the infection.
The diagnosis then became similar to a hunt for existing pathogens in patients. This can become a very long search and sometimes unreliable guess of the problem.
Results showed that Ginsburg and colleagues found 30 genes that are activated when the virus strikes. They also looked at blood samples of emergency patients who were accompanied with fever.
Results showed an 89 percent accuracy rate in diagnosing patients infected with the virus and helping to better determine whether the problem was viral or bacterial.
Yet researchers noted a drawback of the test was that it took 12 hours to complete. In the meantime, study authors are looking for a way to speed up the release of results similar to that of other laboratory tests.
More information regarding this study can be found via the journal Science Translational Medicine.
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First Posted: Sep 19, 2013 04:07 PM EDT
A new study shows a blood test that can help determine whether an infection is bacterial or viral-based.
Researchers tracked new epidemics or viruses including MERS in this experimental study in order to achieve a print of the immune system and determine how genes in the system are changing to combat various problems.
Lead study author Geofrey Ginsburg who is also a genomic medicine chief from Duke worked with colleagues to conduct a trial in 102 people on the test's effectiveness.
As laboratory tests do not always provide accurate results and sometimes fail to detect infections, scientists cultivated blood samples in order to determine if bacteria was the culprit of the infection.
The diagnosis then became similar to a hunt for existing pathogens in patients. This can become a very long search and sometimes unreliable guess of the problem.
Results showed that Ginsburg and colleagues found 30 genes that are activated when the virus strikes. They also looked at blood samples of emergency patients who were accompanied with fever.
Results showed an 89 percent accuracy rate in diagnosing patients infected with the virus and helping to better determine whether the problem was viral or bacterial.
Yet researchers noted a drawback of the test was that it took 12 hours to complete. In the meantime, study authors are looking for a way to speed up the release of results similar to that of other laboratory tests.
More information regarding this study can be found via the journal Science Translational Medicine.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone