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High Probability Diagnostics

June 21, 2002

A lot of diseases are known to the medical science, each of the diseases having its own symptoms. Nevertheless, all diseases have something in common, regardless of the illness cause and the patients` individual reactions. These generalised regularities inherent in all diseases are called general pathology. Physicians can easily recognise anatomical and physiological abnormalities, but some symptoms are not evident. These abnormalities appear to be a presage of a disease, and after the recovery they are retained for some time by the organism as a reminder of the disease. The signs of such asymptomatic pathology are, brought to light, with the help of biochemical, immunological, biophysical, molecular-biological and molecular-genetic research. For twenty years the staff of the Medical Genetic Research Center (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) have been researching various latent signs of general pathology comparing the value of information they carry. The scientists have come to the conclusion that some, specific leukocytes` proteins are more sensitive.
        
The leukocytes genome reacts violently to the pathological state of the organism, as a result it changes the content of proteins called 53? and 43? in these cells. In fact, the indication of general illness is the ratio of these proteins content to the content of the histon protein of leukocytes. The scientists have examined 1,672 patients suffering from different types of various diseases, both heritable and acquired, including phenylketonuria, Down`s syndrome, psoriasis, stomach ulcer, bronchial asthma, oncological diseases, hepatitis, herpes, tuberculosis and many others. The researchers have also focused on the radiation sickness, cardiovascular diseases, illnesses of kidneys, liver and bile-ducts, tumours, diseases of bones and joints and gastrointestinal tract. Without exception, the ratio of proteins of all the examined patients has turned out abnormal. This implies high probability diagnostics - nobody has managed yet to achieve one-hundred-percent diagnostics.

        Up to now the pre-clinical diagnostics used other indications, for instance, the scientists determined the concentration of various cell types or the content of antibodies and some other substances in blood. However, these indications may fail the diagnostics as they do not show up with all diseases or with all patients. The 53K and 43K proteins relative content has never failed the researchers. There exist other signs of general pathology, which can be determined by a physician. These signs can include oedema, pathologies of blood circulation, thrombosis, inflammation and some others. However, it is not easy to use these signs for the early diagnostics purposes, since with different individuals and at different phases of illness development these signs do not only reflect the pathological process but also indicate the adaptive response of the organism.
        
Having compared the suggested pre-clinical and post-clinical diagnostics methods, with other methods being employed now, the Moscow scientists believe that the protein parameters of leukocytes may be considered the `gold standard` in the general pathology recognition. Having determined that the pathology takes place, the doctors should send potential patients to the examination to define the disease more precisely and to undertake the required measures. The above analysis is not that laborious. According to the researchers, it makes sense to carry out the analysis to reveal the new-born children`s pathology, and to apply this method to undertake health checks of the people who are living or working in unhealthy conditions. This method can help to monitor the disease dynamics and to check the treatment efficiency, to validate whether the treatment is successful and whether it does not cause any harm. The general pathology early diagnostics is also helpful for the people with hereditary predisposition to illnesses, and for clinical tests of new drugs in order to determine contra-indications to a certain medicine.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency