Researchers from Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania developed a test that can potentially detect elusive pathogens among patients with compromised immune systems, according to Medical News Today.
Cancer, Biology & Therapy published the study.
Here are five things to know:
1. Erle Robertson, PhD, professor and vice chair of otorhinolaryngology at the university's Perelman School of Medicine, led the study.
2. Researchers applied the test, PathoChip, to tissue samples of a patient with relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia.
3. In the study, researchers identified one of the two species of Rhizomucor, which was the cause of the patient's fungal infection.
4. "This report highlights the value of PathoChip as a diagnostic tool to identify microorganisms to the species level, especially for those difficult to identify in most clinical laboratories," the authors wrote. "It will also help clinicians to obtain a critical snapshot of the infection profile of a patient to plan treatment strategies."
5. While other methods such as next-generation sequencing can identify unknown pathogens, these methods have limitations. In next-generation sequencing, tissue samples need to have a high level of nucleic acids to identify pathogens.
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