A new blood analysis could predict if a person is approaching death.
The scientific blood analysis could determine the general state of a person's metabolism, a University of Eastern Finland news release reported. The biomarkers could determine the subject's "short-term mortality."
Patients whois mortality is related to four pinpointed blood biomarkers would be able to effectively use the blood test. These biomarkers are "levels of two proteins (albumin and alpha-1 acidic glycoprotein), lipid metabolism variables (size of large lipoprotein particles responsible for lipid metabolism in the body) and citric acid concentration," the news release reported.
These biomarkers are not related to other mortality risks such as "age, smoking, alcohol use, cholesterol, obesity, and blood pressure," the news release reported. The test would be effective even for healthy patients who have not suffered from cancer, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes.
The new analysis could allow medical experts to predict oncoming mortality in the early stages; the patients' lives could be lengthened through "follow-up examinations and treatment."
A test like this has never been seen before in medical history, but the method needs future work and research. Researchers from the Computational Medicine Research Group in cooperation between the University of Oulu and the University of Eastern Finland have been working on this new method for over a decade.
The test employs Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy which allows medical experts to test for about 200 metabolism biomarkers in a single blood sample.
This blood analysis method has been used over the years to look for traces of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
"The current study was cooperation between the University of Oulu, the University of Eastern Finland, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), and Estonian Genome Centre (in the University of Tartu). One of the leaders of this research is Professor Mika Ala-Korpela from the University of Oulu. Dr. Pasi Soininen, the head of the NMR metabolomics laboratory in the University of Eastern Finland, was responsible for the NMR experimentation," the news release reported.
