A test that allows you to determine the cold by the blood
It is now possible to establish the true cause of the cold with the help of a test developed in the USA, which presupposes the establishment of a pathogen, a virus or a bacterium, from the analysis of the blood. These microorganisms are fundamentally different, which determines the significant difference in the treatment of these infectious diseases. In particular, the use of such a test will allow to answer such an important question - is it necessary to use antibiotics in this case or can we do without them.
One of the most common reasons for visiting doctors, including calling them at home, is acute respiratory infection.
At the same time, there is information that about 70% of cases are prescribed antibacterial drugs, which, if there is a viral infection, will not bring any result. These drugs are not recommended to be abused, as they are capable of causing some bacteria becoming addictive, which in the future will be resistant to antibiotics.
To perform accurate diagnosis in the case of respiratory infection, doctors use a variety of methods, but there is no single-valued method that would immediately answer the question - a bacterium or a virus caused this infection.
It is the difficulties with the diagnosis of such conditions pushed specialists led by the assistant professor of medicine at the University of Dhuq Efraim Tsalik to develop a test that can identify the true cause of infection and allows you to distinguish bacteria from viruses.
As a sample, specialists used blood tests from 300 patients with various respiratory diseases. At the same time, blood samples were taken from healthy people. After that, experts with the help of microchips studied the changes in gene expression that occurred in response to the disease.
After careful study of the results, scientists were able to identify certain changes occurring during infections caused by viruses or bacteria. So the special distinctive features were identified, allowing to recognize the pathogen. The effectiveness of the developed test was at the level of 87%.
According to the authors of the test, its use will avoid unnecessary use of antibacterial agents. But they also note some shortcomings of the new development - it will take some time to determine the pathogen of the infection, which can be up to 10 hours. In addition to reducing this time, specialists plan to adapt such a test to use it in the conditions of conventional hospitals.
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