Finger-stick blood test may aid fibromyalgia diagnosis

Scientists have developed a novel blood test that could help to diagnose fibromyalgia, a chronic widespread pain condition that is thought to affect up to one in every 25 people.

The test employs a technique called infrared microspectroscopy to look for molecular patterns that are believed to be more common in the blood of people with fibromyalgia.

It reacts to the way in which molecular bonds vibrate when they are struck by light and shows which molecules are present in a particular blood sample as peaks on the infrared spectrum.

As the technique uses dried blood, only a few drops are required and can be obtained via a simple finger-stick procedure, rather than a venous blood sample.

The researchers have pilot-tested their technique on blood samples from 14 fibromyalgia patients, 15 with rheumatoid arthritis and 12 with osteoarthritis.

Samples were run through the machine and the researchers found they were able to 'train' it to differentiate between people with fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis by comparing molecular patterns in their blood.

"It separated them completely, with no misclassifications," according to senior study author Tony Buffington, professor of veterinary clinical sciences at the Ohio State University.

He added: "That's very important. It never mistook a patient with fibromyalgia for a patient with arthritis. Clearly we need more numbers, but this showed the technique is quite effective."

The researchers hope that the technique - which is detailed in the journal Analyst - could one day be used by GPs to help detect fibromyalgia, potentially slashing the time it takes to diagnose the condition by as much as five years.

Lead author Dr Kevin Hackshaw, associate professor of medicine at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Centre, commented: "The importance of producing a faster diagnosis cannot be overstated, because patients experience tremendous stress during the diagnostic process.

"Just getting the diagnosis actually makes patients feel better and lowers costs because of reductions in anxiety."

An Arthritis Research UK spokesman said: “We are aware of how difficult it is to make a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Development of a blood test may help, although this is a complex issue and preliminary results from this study need to be treated with considerable caution and would need to be replicated in much larger studies.”