An easier diagnosis may be coming for ulcerative colitis patients, as researchers at Georgia State University recently used a special type of spectroscopy to examine the blood serum of mice with the disease.
For those of you that don’t know, a spectroscopy is a scientific measurement technique to accurately identify and quantify certain materials in the body.
In their findings, the scientists used an infrared spectroscopy, and they found nine different peaks of absorption that could be used to indicate the presence of ulcerative colitis.
Ulcerative colitis is a rare inflammatory bowel syndrome that results in sores and ulcers developing in the large intestine. These in turn cause a series of debilitating symptoms, but many people do not like getting screened for the disease because colonoscopies are costly, uncomfortable, and have risks of complications.
This is why the latest research is such great news. Infrared spectroscopies could greatly improve the current diagnostic process. In fact, testing the blood of patients is remarkably cheaper and less invasive overall than colonoscopies. A simple finger prick is all it takes to get a blood sample, so there are also no risks associated with this method.
Furthermore, this infrared spectroscopy technique can also lead to many other applications in the rare disease world, such as screenings for other conditions, including cancer, and in predicting the development of ulcerative colitis cases.
This research conveys how diagnosis is equally as important as treatment for patients. Luckily, this step is being refined and improved with spectroscopies, so early detection can become more and more common in the years to come.
