Source Mutiple Sclerosis News Today:
In the future, a blood test may make diagnosing multiple sclerosis (MS) much easier, thanks to newly identified biomarker patterns that distinguish between MS patients and healthy people.
The test could also correctly detect primary progressive MS (PPMS) in patients who also had relapsing-remitting disease (RRMS).
Australian researchers suggest that their test — if validated in future prospective studies — could also be used to predict the disease subtype from the outset, or potentially spot the transformation from relapsing to progressive disease earlier than current clinical tests.
This could be particularly important since the emergence of newer-generation treatments — which address axon and brain volume loss — may allow treatment choices that potentially slow disease progression, the research team said. Read on.