Around 500,000 people in the UK are living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – and up to one in five are diagnosed in childhood. These lifelong conditions involve inflammation of the digestive system, leading to symptoms including pain, bleeding and diarrhoea. There is no cure – treatment includes powerful anti-inflammatory drugs and surgery.
IBD is most commonly diagnosed by passing a camera on a tube into the intestines (endoscopy) which, in children, is usually carried out in hospital under a general anaesthetic. This can be disruptive and upsetting for children and their families.
With Action support, Professor Jack Satsangi and Dr Alexandra Noble of the University of Oxford have confirmed specific markers in the blood that can diagnose IBD in children very accurately. These markers can also help doctors identify children who need more intensive medical or surgical treatment from those who don’t.
As a result of this research, a rapid blood test is being developed with input from Oxford Nanopore Technology, a spin-out company of the University of Oxford, which delivers new technologies to the market. This could speed up diagnosis, reduce invasive procedures and support more personalised care for children with IBD.
This test will reduce the time from when symptoms appear to diagnosis and help to identify children who do not require invasive investigations. We are especially grateful to Action Medical Research”