A bloodspot-based Fibromyalgia test (diagnostic test) for Fibromyalgia symptoms and related disorders has been met with some interesting success. Conducted by Kevin V. Hackshaw, L. E. Rodriguez-Saona, Marcal Plans Pujolras, Lauren Nicole Bell and Tony Buffington, analysts, their accepted manuscript is now in 2013 publication.

The aim of the study they conducted was to investigate the ability of a rapid biomarker-based method for diagnosis of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (a.k.a. FM, FMS, Fibro) using mid-infrared microspectroscopy (IRMS) to differentiate patients with FM from those with osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and to identify molecular species associated with the spectral patterns.

How can this help you? Will there be a Fibromyalgia test soon? Let’s see.

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Note: This was a fairly small study. Replication in a larger group must be done for these results to be considered significant.

Details about this Fibromyalgia Test analysis

Blood samples were collected from patients diagnosed with either of the three illnesses. Spectra were analyzed using multivariate statistical modeling to differentiate groups. Aliquots of samples also were subjected to

metabolomic analysis.

Analysis revealed that the RA and OA groups were metabolically similar. Conversely, the FM group displayed biochemical differences that were quite distinctive from the other two groups. Yes! Now scientists believe that finding a statistical difference between Fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis may be the first step in arriving at the answers we’ve all been looking for and needing.

You know as well as I do that chronic pain is not simply, plain ole’ chronic pain…always the same, never needing to be treated differently. Instead, chronic pain is merely a single symptom that can be indicative of many illnesses requiring lots of different treatments!

When the “causes” of health problems stem from different illnesses, this must prompt us to conduct more detailed study and analysis to get to the root of what is going on with each individual illness. It’s unwise to assume that we’re always dealing with the same one. Instead, we must look for the differences or peculiarities between them, if we are ever to figure this out and what and how this is affecting our health. Then and only then can we be close to discovering the real truths and arriving at the best conclusions.

Additional analysis also identified changes in tryptophan catabolism pathway that differentiated patients with FM from those with RA or OA. A second, measurable difference and characteristic, each one significant in its own right. Two differences are even better!

Does this mean that a lab technician can give you a diagnostic “Fibromyalgia test” and tell you whether you have the illness or not? No, but hopefully future results will be even more helpful in pinpointing the causes of all three of these bothersome and painful chronic illnesses.

Thanks so much for checking in with the Health Matters Show today.

I’m Cinda Crawford, your host