Blood Test Differentiates Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease

A new blood test that provides a differential diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) is available to clinicians.

Dubbed eXaUC/CD, the test is an addition to the offerings of a molecular diagnostics laboratory that already markets blood tests to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), eXaIBD, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), eXaIBS.

The new test has shown a sensitivity of 92% for CD and 87% for UC, which lowers the risk of false negatives, and it has shown a specificity of 87% for CD and 92% for UC, which reduces the risk of false positives.

The company, Exagen Diagnostics (Albuquerque, NM, USA) stated that eXaUC/CD has "90% accuracy” with patients who "have an established diagnosis of IBD using a combination of laboratory tests, such as eXaIBD, clinical workup, and/or scoping procedures.”

Exagen Diagnostics, Inc., a molecular diagnostics laboratory that discovers, develops, and markets proprietary genomic tests, has been awarded accreditation by the Accreditation Committee of the College of American Pathologists (CAP). More...