
A scientific team supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a preclinical blood test that can identify adults who are most at risk for developing severe respiratory conditions, including COPD.
The test analyzes 32 proteins that can accurately predict an adult with increased likelihood for requiring medical care for — or dying from — a severe respiratory illness. The calculated risk score was based on lung health data from nearly 2,500 U.S. adults who participated in a cardiovascular health study. The research was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine.
“We’re still not ready for this test to be used in practice, but it’s a promising advance,” said James P. Kiley, PhD, director of the Division of Lung Diseases at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, in a news release. “It consolidates insights from decades of breathing tests and medical evaluations into a single tool that has the potential to identify patients at risk for severe disease and complications.”
Researchers screened thousands of proteins from blood samples provided by participants in the study at the 25-year mark and selected 32 that best predicted which participants were having a rapid decline in lung function. Those proteins were then compiled in a score to forecast how likely a person would be to either need medical treatment or die from a lung condition or severe respiratory event.
Adults with higher scores had a 17% increased chance of hospital admission for a respiratory illness, an 84% chance of developing COPD and at least an 81% chance of dying from a respiratory disease. Those adults also had a 10% increased chance of experiencing respiratory exacerbations, such as cough, mucous or shortness of breath, that required treatment.
To test the risk score, researchers used it to retrospectively assess disease risks of more than 40,000 adults from two earlier studies. They were able to successfully identify adults who had the highest chance of severe respiratory illness after accounting for multiple factors, including sex, race, body weight, asthma and a history of smoking.
While the test still needs further assessment before being considered for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the researchers said it holds promise.
“Loss of lung function on a year-over-year basis is associated with poor respiratory health outcomes, but we do not have a good way to easily figure out if a patient is on a steep trajectory of lung function decline,” said study co-author Ravi Kalhan, MD, the Louis A. Simpson Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. “If we had an easy-to-implement clinical tool, like a blood test, that captured someone’s lung function trajectory at a single time point, it would enable earlier interventions which might, in the long run, improve lung health.”