Finger prick test

Creola17

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DX FIBRO
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Just got email from science daily and they claim there's a test where they prick your finger and can see under a microscope a tiny molecule that signals that you have fibromyalgia. I hope it's soon so new people to fibro can get diagnosed easier and way earlier than us.
 
Hi Creola - can't find what this might be. 🧐 There are already a lot of "molecules" that sort of signal you may have fibromyalgia ("biomarkers"), but none yet that are clear enough. And I can't see anything new on that front, definitely no "finger prick test".
Perhaps you could copy a portion of text from the email, so I can have a closer look for it.
The last thing science daily had which sounds similar was in 2019 a "metabolic fingerprint": In a small preliminary study (50 people) published 2019, researchers from Ohio State University were finding some "biomarkers", using "vibrational spectroscopy".
 
Here it is and I see the date is 2013?

Summary:Researchers have developed a reliable way to use a finger-stick blood sample to detect fibromyalgia syndrome, a complicated pain disorder that often is difficult to diagnose
 
Well, if such a thing were developed nine years ago and it had any validity it would be widely known and used now. Since it is not, I don't think there's any reason to believe this is real.
 
Interesting. . . what’s the molecule called?actually what’s the test called? 🙃
 
Summary:Researchers have developed a reliable way to use a finger-stick blood sample to detect fibromyalgia syndrome, a complicated pain disorder that often is difficult to diagnose

Thanks for the quote, it's then easy to find!

A finger-stick is a finger-prick, so that fits. So yes, 2013 was the first pilot study, before the one I found above - also by the Ohio researchers around Hackshaw and Buffington. The old ScienceDaily article was called "Faster, simpler diagnosis for fibromyalgia may be on the horizon" and the study "A bloodspot-based diagnostic test for fibromyalgia syndrome and related disorders."
At the time they were testing if their method which seemed to work for cats also work for humans. So nothing like a clinical trial. Also they hadn't even clearly identified any molecules at that time "Though more analysis is needed to identify exactly which molecules are related to development of the disorder itself, the researchers say their pilot data are promising." They had only found that the method might work. In 2019 they then got a little further and tested 50 people with fibro. Apparently not particularly successfully, otherwise they'd be moving a lot faster.
In between, in 2016, they did "A pilot study of health and wellness coaching for fibromyalgia" on 9 women, showing that this might help.
Only Hackshaw is a rheumatologist, whilst Buffington is a veterinarian, and other people working on this work were health coaches, someone from Nestlé-Purina (the pet food branch of Nestlé).... - a truly intriguing combination of specialists. 🧐

I'm wondering why you get an e-mail from sciencedaily about a 9-year-old study! 🧐 As if nothing more important had happened since then...

Interesting. . . what’s the molecule called?actually what’s the test called? 🙃
The method is called "vibrational spectroscopy". (There are 2 sorts, mid-IR and Raman.) But it's not a test. Which doesn't mean it won't develop into one in a few decades from now. Maybe this method may help get closer to more helpful biomarkers. (A biomarker = biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition.)
In the 2019 study quoted above, it says the method could roughly see similarities and differences between FM and RA or OA, but couldn't prove the molecules involved, but may have to do with tryptophan.
("Pattern recognition analysis of the spectra allowed us to discriminate FM patients from those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or osteoarthritis (OA) that appeared to be metabolically similar. The approach did not conclusively identify the metabolites responsible for the diagnostic spectral differentiation, although changes in tryptophan catabolism seemed to be involved.")

Tryptophan would be interesting for me, because tryptophan has to do with serotonin and the GABA that helps me. However I tolerate neither L-tryptophan nor the related 5-HTP as supps, only GABA itself. That shows how identifying slight differences is still a far distance from actually finding substances that will help and not harm.

There's a very recent similar article about chronic pain biomarkers from May 2022, called Toward Composite Pain Biomarkers of Neuropathic Pain—Focus on Peripheral Neuropathic Pain. (This cites above article, that's how I found it.)
The "molecules" found generally for chronic pain (including fibromyalgia) listed there are
  • endocannabinoid (ECB) biomarkers - which also have to do with pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (the ones used in the so-called "FM/a-test" we've taken apart here several times).
  • "mu opioid receptors expressed on immune B cells was found to be a biomarker for chronic pain in fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis" (mu lympho-marker)
  • "Dysregulations in microRNAs have been reported in several pain disorders".
But these don't prove someone's got fibromyalgia, just they have chronic pain, and sometimes whether it is severe, moderate or slight.

The biomarkers relevant to fibro I've collected to date are
  • Proinflammatory/neuroinflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-8) / chemokines / mast cells...
  • Salivary Biomarkers
  • Muscle pressure
  • Less gut bacteria & serum: molecular biomarkers and altered glutamate metabolism
  • Hormones: serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine, cortisol...
  • protein backbones and pyridine-carboxylic acids using vibrational spectroscopy
Ah, there's the vibrational spectroscopy, like above.... and the cytokines and the serotonin etc.

Rather than "Way to Go" to this research, I'd say "There's a long way to go"... 🧐
 
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The last thing science daily had which sounds similar was in 2019 a "metabolic fingerprint": In a small preliminary study (50 people) published 2019, researchers from Ohio State University were finding some "biomarkers", using "vibrational spectroscopy".
ScienceDaily's article on above 2019 study leads us into another "fairy tale":
It is titled "Experimental blood test accurately spots fibromyalgia"
Yet when you read the text, it says
"But there's no blood test - no clear-cut, easy-to-use tool to provide a quick answer.
"We found clear, reproducible metabolic patterns in the blood of dozens of patients with fibromyalgia. This brings us much closer to a blood test than we have ever been," Hackshaw said.
and ""We can look back into some of these fingerprints and potentially identify some of the chemicals associated with the differences we are seeing," he said."
But also "Hackshaw said his goal is to have a test ready for widespread use within five years."

That's like the autoimmune touters last August claiming they'd proved fibro is autoimmune in articles, but not showing anything like that in the actual study....

I can see another FM/a-test scandal looming ahead... be very careful what you believe and what you want to believe...
 
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Rather than "Way to Go" to this research, I'd say "There's a long way to go"... 🧐
My thoughts exactly.
And...
be very careful what you believe and what you want to believe...

I am always annoyed when someone publishes something that makes claims and further investigation into it turns out their entire study was 12 or 50 people and not done in anything even resembling a scientific manner.

Until something is done right, with a large group of people and a control group equally large, and done over time, and is then a peer-reviewed study published in a reliable scientific journal or the like, I don't pay any attention to it. People make wild claims all the time to get attention.
 
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