View in Browser

Sign up for Reuters newsletters

By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! Today we highlight testing of promising new diagnostic tools and report on an older drug that may have an important new use. Researchers this week described a blood test that appears effective in detecting rheumatoid arthritis and would be an alternative to an invasive biopsy. Meanwhile,  a separate team reported on wireless devices that can help improve care decisions by monitoring multiple sounds inside the body simultaneously. We also cover a pair of studies that found a well known antibiotic helps prevent drug-resistant tuberculosis in children and adults.    

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: UK authorizes gene therapy for blood disorders in world first; ex-director accuses American Diabetes Association of ‘pay to play’ with sweetener Splenda; two former NBA players are convicted over roles in health care fraud; U.N. human rights chief says widespread disease, hunger inevitable in Gaza; Amazon says unapproved eye drops being removed from its platform; and Biden removes sanctions from Chinese institute in push for fentanyl help.

A stethoscope only lets doctors listen to one body spot at a time, but an experimental wearable device can monitor all the sounds in the body at once to improve diagnosis and managment, researchers say. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

The first blood test for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be on the horizon, after researchers reported promising results from a clinical trial at a medical meeting this week.

Rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune disorder in which the body mistakenly attacks joints, skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels – can be difficult to diagnose because in its early stages, it mimics many diseases and no current single blood test or physical finding can distinguish it from other conditions.

The new test, being developed by Aqtual Inc., analyzes genes in the fluid inside the synovium, the capsule that contains the joints at the ends of bones.

In a study involving 89 patients with RA, 61 with other inflammatory conditions, 12 with osteoarthritis, and 29 healthy volunteers, the Aqtual test was 90.8% accurate at identifying those with RA and 96.1% accurate at determining who did not  have the disease, according to data presented on Wednesday at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in San Diego.

Gene signatures in RA patients’ synovial fluid can also yield “critical information for understanding disease progression, customizing treatments, and evaluating the effectiveness of therapies,” the researchers said.

“Previously, it was only possible to detect synovial signatures in patients with RA through a biopsy, which is an invasive procedure,” study leader Peter Taylor of the University of Oxford said in a statement.

“Now we have a non-invasive, synovial-specific blood test which will provide patients with a much more efficient pathway to finding the right therapy,” he added.

A pair of clinical trials have shown that a well-known antibiotic can be used as the first safe and effective treatment to prevent multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in babies, children and adults, researchers reported on Thursday at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris.

The drug, levofloxacin, was taken daily for six months by children and adults who were at high risk for developing MDR-TB because someone else in their household had the disease.

In one trial, conducted in 453 children aged 6 months and older, the preventive treatment safely reduced the risk of MDR-TB by 56%.

In a separate trial of 2,041 adolescents and adults, the treatment reduced the risk by 45%.

For children in particular, the results are a breakthrough, researchers said.

“MDR-TB is one of the toughest diseases to cure, and children have always been the most neglected patients,” Dr. James Seddon from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, who co-led the trial in the very young children, said in a statement.

“In finding a new way to keep children safe when MDR-TB afflicts a family member, we help the whole family recover that much faster from the trauma that the disease inflicts,” he added.

The data from these two trials will help guide the World Health Organization in December 2023, when it considers new guidelines for MDR-TB preventive treatment, the researchers said.

Small, soft wireless devices that stick to the skin and monitor all the subtle sounds inside the body can improve patient care, researchers say.

Changes in the sounds inside patients’ bodies – such as heartbeats, air moving in and out of lungs, and food passing through the gastrointestinal tract – can signal problems. 

“Currently, there are no existing methods for continuously monitoring and spatially mapping body sounds,” John Rogers of Northwestern University, whose team is developing the stick-on monitors, said in a statement.

For example, he said, physicians now have to put a stethoscope on different parts of the chest and back to listen to the lungs in a point-by-point fashion.

But having a monitor that tracks all sounds simultaneously is like being able to listen to and compare stethoscope sounds coming from a dozen or more different places in the lungs all at once, Dr. Ankit Bharat of Northwestern Medicine, who worked on the devices, said in a statement.

Furthermore, Bharat said, sounds inside the body aren’t very loud, “and hospitals can be noisy places. When there are people talking nearby or machines beeping, it can be incredibly difficult (to hear sounds from the body). An important aspect of our technology is that it can correct for those ambient sounds.”

As reported on Thursday in Nature Medicine, the researchers tested the devices in pilot studies in 15 premature babies with respiratory and digestion disorders and 55 adults, including 20 with chronic lung diseases.

The devices improved patient care, they said.

“The small size, lightweight construction, soft mechanical properties and gentle adhesive interfaces (of the devices) allow for measurements from nearly any location of the body and across broad ranges of patients, from premature infants to elderly individuals,” the researchers wrote.

Additional possibilities for use include monitoring of throat and esophagus sounds in patients who have trouble swallowing, as well as measuring heart sounds that might be relevant to the care of patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias, asthma, and other conditions, the researchers said.

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content.

Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com

Reuters Health Rounds is sent twice a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.

Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement