March 18 (Reuters) – A new blood test for the painful uterine disorder endometriosis detected cases missed by ultrasound and MRI, according to results of a study to be presented at a medical meeting this week.
Endometriosis, in which cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow outside the uterus, affects about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age, causing pelvic pain, menstrual irregularities, dyspareunia, or pain associated with sexual intercourse, and gastrointestinal discomfort.
Diagnosis can take years, largely because imaging tests don’t detect it accurately, and the current gold standard diagnostic method involves laparoscopic surgery.
Studying 298 reproductive-age women who had surgery to look for endometriosis, including 177 with confirmed cases, researchers found the blood test accurately identified 80% of those cases and accurately ruled out the disease in 97.5% of individuals who did not have it.
The test developed by HerAnova Lifesciences also correctly identified 61.5% of cases that had been missed on imaging studies, according to a report of the study published in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology.
“Endometriosis remains profoundly underdiagnosed, and patients deserve better tools,” HerAnova Chief Medical Officer Farideh Bischoff said in a statement.
The researchers are scheduled to report on the study at the American & Global College of Endometriosis Specialists Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.
“We look forward to presenting our findings to the clinical and scientific community and advancing the conversation around non-invasive approaches for evaluating this disease,” Bischoff said.
EXPERIMENTAL DRUG SHOWS PROMISE FOR ALS
An experimental oral medication combining an antibiotic with an anti-inflammatory drug may be useful for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a mid-stage trial suggests.
The randomized trial, designed to prove the combination pill’s safety but not confirm its efficacy, involved 68 participants who received PrimeC being developed by NeuroSense Therapeutics and Recipharm, or placebo for six months, followed by a 12-month open-label extension in which all received PrimeC.
PrimeC, a combination of celecoxib and ciprofloxacin, is designed to target the neuroinflammation, excess iron accumulation, and abnormal microRNA gene-regulating activity that occurs in ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Celecoxib is sold under the brand name Celebrex by Viatris.
Although the study was not designed to assess efficacy, participants in the PrimeC arm had better functional outcomes, especially for speech and swallowing, as measured by an ALS Functional Rating Scale Revised score, researchers reported in JAMA Neurology.
On a scale ranging from 0 to 48, with 48 indicating normal functional ability, at 6 months the participants taking PrimeC scored 2.23 points higher than those taking placebo. By 18 months, participants originally assigned to PrimeC scored 7.92 points higher, on average, than their counterparts.
Early, continuous treatment was also associated with a 64% reduced risk of ALS-related complications, including hospitalization, respiratory failure or death.
In addition, those initially assigned to PrimeC had lower levels of ferritin, a key protein involved in storing iron in the body, and lower levels of microRNA molecules that have been linked to ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive muscle weakness, paralysis, respiratory failure and eventually death.
“The improved functional and biomarker signals we observed support a Phase 3 study to evaluate PrimeC’s effectiveness and safety in a larger population,” study leader Dr. Merit Cudkowicz of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute in Boston said in a statement.
“We are determined to accelerate the development of therapies for people living with ALS,” Cudkowicz added.
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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