RNA blood test for fibromyalgia launched

Data science company IQuity has announced the launch of a new blood test called IsolateFibromyalgia, which uses RNA gene expression analysis to diagnose fibromyalgia, according to a press release. 'RNA analysis is a cutting-edge tool for doctors that has great potential in the field of medical diagnostics,' Chase Spurlock, PhD, CEO of IQuity, said in the
release. 'Unlike DNA, which can predict the risk of certain diseases, RNA shows what's taking place right now in a patient's cells. That information can speed up the pace of diagnosis for physicians, leading to faster, more effective treatment for patients.'

More at https://www.healio.com/rheumatology...c84}/rna-blood-test-for-fibromyalgia-launched

 

So this test is validated by 600 blood tests conducted by the company selling the test. Not exactly rock solid, i would want more validation.
That said this is very interesting and worth validating but i am still skeptical.

 

Would be interesting to see if there was a patent application backing this up - which should have given some details as to the evidence behind these tests.

ETA: the papers backing this up are here: https://iquity.com/news/
I don't have time to take a proper look now, work tomorrow!

 

My immediate impression is that his is likely to be phoney. There is almost certainly a logical contradiction in what they are claiming. If you know someone had fibromyalgia and there is an 80% chance of them coming out positive on a test - so what, you knew they had fibromyalgia. If you did not know then they weren't tested because the studies tested people known to have fibromyalgia. Percentage positivity rates in tests done on people already diagnosed are not an indication that the test is any use.

To be useful a test either has to predict what will happen next or it has to provide an explanation. It may be that for MS RNA testing predicts, but I have not looked at that in detail. I am not clear what would be predicted in fibromyalgia since no specific pathology ever appears. I don't see anything about explaining mechanisms in these tests.

 

These sorts of "diagnostic" tests just mean that someone found something a bit different from controls in a lab test, slapped a patent on it, and put up a website to sell it. They're 100% bullshit. At best they found something which needs to be more rigorously researched and replicated, but that never happens.

 

Press release about a new RNA-based blood test for fibromyalgia. Seems like a big breakthrough if it actually works.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...ased-blood-test-to-diagnose-fibromyalgia.aspx

The link to IQuity IsolateFibromyalgia™ is https://www.iquitylabs.com/technology/iqisolate-tests/

 

I tried to find a patent application to see if there was more information on the basis of this test. Unfortunately Google Patent is bloody awful to use so I drew a blank (apart from finding by sheer chance Naviaux's patent on Suramin therapy and using metabolomics as a biomarker for ME/CFS... which at least suggests I was using the right search terms)