https://goo.gl/Q3Rr9q
Although there is no known cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), there are treatments that can help prevent new attacks and improve function after an attack. However, there are three subtypes of the disease and determining this, as well as the appropriateness and effectiveness of a patient's current treatment, involves an array of expensive, time-consuming tests. Now, after a search lasting 12 years, an international team of researchers has identified a biomarker that would allow MS subtypes to be determined with a simple blood test.
Currently, when patients are diagnosed with MS they face a wait before the subtype of the disease can be determined. During this time, they may receive medication that is ineffective for periods of weeks. The researchers say the biomarker blood test, which can determine the type of MS someone has with an accuracy of 85 to 90 percent, will allow doctors to adapt treatments faster.
"This is a significant discovery because it will facilitate the ability to quickly and simply make a prognosis of the three types of MS and will allow clinicians to adapt their treatment for MS patients more accurately and rapidly," says Professor Gilles Guillemin, a researcher at Australia's Macquarie University who oversaw the study.