No one can predict the future with certainty. But a new blood test that has been developed by Dutch researchers claims to be able to determine whether you are likely to die within the next 10 years. And this could prove very useful information for scientists, but it’s likely that not everyone would want to know.
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To develop this test, biologists used health data collected from 44,168 Europeans aged between 18 and 109. They identified 14 biomarkers in their blood independently associated with all-cause mortality.
‘These biomarkers clearly improve risk prediction of five and 10-year mortality as compared to conventional risk factors across all ages,’ said researchers.
These results suggest that metabolic biomarker profiling could potentially be used to guide patient care.
Additional studieswill, however, need to be carried out to prove the reliability of this test, which currently sits around 83%.
‘So, it’s an exciting step, but it’s not ready yet,’ admits researchers.
As well as being able to predict the future, the aim of this test is actually to help doctors treat patients better. Because, despite the immense progress in medicine, far too many people still die because of late diagnoses.
‘If we can identify vulnerable elderly people with this blood-based measurement, then the next step is to anticipate this vulnerability.’
