Better ways to diagnose asthma.....

[ALUK_Nurses]

An interesting read...

Could a blood test one day diagnose if someone has asthma? That’s what researchers at the University of Southampton are trying to find out.

The team is studying whether substances in blood could show if someone is more likely to develop asthma and also what type of asthma. The substances – called microRNAs - act as ‘genetic signatures’ and are currently used to indicate a person’s risk of developing other diseases. The hope is that they may work for recognising the risk of asthma too. If so, this would transform our understanding of asthma diagnosis as it currently relies on doing lots of tests and can be a very long process.

We’re funding this ground-breaking research. Find out more about the study by reading this blog by Dr Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy, the project leader. blog.asthma.org.uk/blog/bet...

[Wheesy]

What a brilliant breakthrough. Not only will this allow medical staff the ability to diagnose and treat asthma, but also allow A&E medics to ascertain the severity of an asthma attack resulting in incorrect diagnosis {i.e sending a patient home even though they are having an exacerbation but do not wheeze and SATS, etc. are showing that all is presumably fine} an will consult the respiratory team for their diagnosis.

[Gareth57]

I've only ever had one test for asthma and that was the peakflow reversibility.

[Poobah]

Every step forward is great news. Thank you Asthma UK for supporting this work. And thank you for everything you do. 👏👏👏

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

Thanks for sharing this. From what I can see after reading this and doing a search, it's possible that this might have a broader application for multiple types of asthma, unlike something like FeNO.

Crossing fingers that it does prove useful for identification and treatment beyond allergic/eosinophilic types, and they can create a test that's easy to use and interpret, even within primary care. Not an easy task, but it might be more useful than surgeries having to buy an expensive machine that only tells you certain things about certain types of asthma.

(I'm definitely, absolutely not at all someone with non-allergic, non-eosinophilic asthma who doesn't find FeNO that helpful... lol 🤣😜)

[twinkly29 in reply to Lysistrata]

I really hope it is a useful thing in time to those of us who are not allergic/eos types.

Sadly I fear it will be something else that helps "the more normal" and not us but we shall see....

[Wheezycat in reply to twinkly29]

Me, too. Though I can’t claim I know for completely sure, I have good reason to believe I also belong in that group, especially as a blood test apparently showed very low EOS count. And what I see myself reacting on. I recently read an article/piece of research(?) that suggested that non EOS may be very common in people with late onset. And that pollution, in and out, is the major contribution to this. I think I still have the article.

[Bella-Bestia]

I think that this is a fantastic piece of work. Imagine the thought of having a blood test which then demonstrates which subtype you have, and therefore directs your care accordingly.

👏👏👏

[Blue-Breeze]

It would be great to have a blood test. However for those of us who don't fit in the classic box then what? I/We already fight the system for our individual treatment, will this be another fight, if nothing shows?

[Wheesy]

You could and probably are correct with your comment but as I have written I hope that it does help the medics and they may be prompted to either upgrade their knowledge or contact the respiratory team. We can only hope for a better result for people like me who do not conform to the book which they read. {I have often observed A&E staff scratching their heads and asking what to do now, to someone else who is not sure what to diagnose, {I can Lip read}}