New personalised test to identify cause of back pain

Researchers in the US have developed a new testing method for diagnosing low back pain.

The study, published in Arthritis Research and Therapy, was conducted by a team at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York. Findings indicate that checking the levels of a certain protein in the blood could aid the diagnostic process.

The research team recruited 133 participants, and studied proteins knowns as cytokines, specifically IL-6, to see how they influenced the behaviour and pain levels of those with low back pain.

The results found that serum levels of IL-6 were significantly higher in people with low back pain compared with those in a control group. According to researchers, participants with low back pain due to spinal stenosis or degenerative disc disease also had higher IL-6 levels than those with intervertebral disc herniation.

These findings suggest that people with lower back pain have low-grade systemic inflammation, and that biochemical profiling of circulating cytokines may assist in diagnosis, helping those affected get the correct diagnosis more quickly in future.

Study leader Dr Nadeen Chahine and her team see this as an important step, as low back pain can be caused by multiple triggers that present in similar ways.

Dr Katherine Free, from Arthritis Research UK says, “Back pain is a common problem, affecting four out of five people at some point in their lives. Back pain can occur for a variety of reasons and has a significant impact on quality of life.

“It is important to identify the cause of back pain at an early stage in order to give people the best possible treatment, and therefore studies such as this one which stratify or group people, can be very useful and have the potential to significantly improve patient care.”

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