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Researchers may soon have a faster and more accurate way to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using a simple blood test. ALS, the most common motor neuron disease, progressively impairs movement, speech, and breathing, ultimately leading to death. Currently, diagnosing ALS can be slow due to the need to monitor symptoms over time. Sandra Banack, a senior scientist at Brain Chemistry Labs in Wyoming, highlights that this delay postpones crucial treatments like physiotherapy.
To speed up diagnosis, Banack and her team have been studying blood samples from people with and without ALS, identifying eight genetic markers that differ between these groups. They confirmed these markers in a larger study of nearly 270 participants. By training a machine learning model on this data, the researchers were able to identify ALS cases with up to 97% accuracy.
While the test shows great promise, Banack emphasizes that it needs further validation. If successful, it could be available within two years and cost less than $150, significantly improving the speed of ALS diagnosis and patient care.
