Diagnostic Blood Test Determines Irritable Bowel Syndrome

A blood test could easily determine whether a patient is suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), eliminating the need for extensive and expensive dialogistic testing in order to rule out more serious conditions like Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Vinculin is a cell migration and adherence protein found predominantly on nerves and epithelium and a series of studies suggests that acute gastroenteritis causes antibodies to be formed to vinculin and is associated with IBS development.


Scientists at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles, CA, USA) evaluated 165 IBS, 30 IBD and 26 healthy control subjects and demographics were similar between groups. The IBS subjects were aged between 18 and 65 and were all positive according to the Rome criteria. Subjects with IBD were recruited from an expert tertiary care medical center.

Overall, IBS had a significantly greater optical density in the enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) for anti-vinculin antibodies compared to IBD and healthy subjects. The results from Cedars Sinai Medical Center were compared to those at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA, USA) for IBS recruitment, and the findings from both centers were similarly abnormal. Interestingly, subjects with a history of acute gastroenteritis, even higher levels of antibodies were seen.

Mark Pimentel, MD, the lead author of this multicenter study, said, “Anti-vinculin antibodies are elevated in IBS compared to non-IBS. This is the first diagnostic test for IBS based on serum and a pathophysiologic mechanism of IBS through acute gastroenteritis precipitating molecular mimicry and autoimmunity. This is a major breakthrough as the first test to potentially distinguish IBS from IBD and reduce the need for unnecessary testing in these conditions. Moreover, this test is based on a potential pathophysiologic mechanism of IBS development.”

In the USA, it is estimated that 10%–15% of the adult population suffers from IBS symptoms, yet only 5%–7% of adults have been diagnosed with the disease. IBS is the most common disease diagnosed by gastroenterologists and one of the most common disorders seen by primary care physicians. The study was presented at 78th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, held October 11-16, 2013, in San Diego (CA, USA).

Related Links:
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center